


Monster on the Mountain

by SilverServerError



Series: Monster on the Mountain [7]
Category: CLAMP - Works, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: Background ships:, Dragon!Kurogane, Kakei/Kujaku???? apparently?, Kakei/Saiga - Freeform, M/M, Mature content in chapters 4 and 5, Phoenix!Fai, Yue/Clow, Yuuko/Clow
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-29
Updated: 2017-02-08
Packaged: 2018-07-18 23:31:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 28,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7335418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverServerError/pseuds/SilverServerError
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Update: Ch 15   Sleeping Dogs Lie</p><p>Then the room is absolutely still. Fai stares at Kurogane. Kurogane stares at Fai.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Wrong Tree

**Author's Note:**

> In case you didn't know, this series now has lovely fan[art](http://winblossomwin.tumblr.com/post/146294276102/i-am-so-thankful-that-silverservererror-has) from the lovely winblossomwin! Thank you so much! Seriously. It's super cute. Go look at it! ^u^
> 
> (In other news, why does the formatting always break so badly? I'm cry.)
> 
> Also! If you are a new reader, this is not where the story begins! Please go back to part one. I promise it will be a quick read to catch up!

When he returns, Kurogane manages to catch him off guard.

 

“The hell are you doing?”

 

Fai shrieks in surprise and freezes on his upside-down perch except for the gentle swing of momentum as the ironworks strain a little under his weight.

 

“It looked…” The phoenix’s talons flex against the bar. “… fun?”

 

“Tch.” He spits out another of those annoyed little sparks. “Leave my chandelier alone.”

 

Fai’s head snaps around to look back up at his perch with the precise, crisp movement of every creature avian. “Would you call this a chandelier? Don’t they need hanging crystals or something?”

 

There is a distinct growl to the dragon’s voice. “I don’t care what you call it. Get off before you break it.”

 

Fai considers teasing only for a moment, but the dragon is damp from his flight in the rain. There is just something slightly pitiful about it. “Now that is an idea for your next lair improvement.” He pauses as he uses his beak on the iron frame to right himself before hopping down. “Crystals to catch the light.”

 

Kurogane ignores him but holds out a claw. “You dropped this.”

 

When Fai looks down there is a short length of blue-green fabric against an onyx palm.

 

“My robe?”

 

Fai looks back up to meet crimson eyes. Kurogane seems to be daring him to say anything out of line. “You said you liked it.”

 

It is a strange definition of ‘dropped’, but Fai supposes it is true enough. “Thank you.”

 

“I didn’t want it to get rained on.”

 

Fai smiles to himself. As if that would have been the nail in the coffin when it came to these already damaged clothes. Dragons never had proper respect for textiles, but at least he was trying.

 

Kurogane seems to relax as it appears his gift is going to be accepted gracefully. “The pin is still out there somewhere. We can search for it when the weather clears if you so desire.”

 

Fai took the fabric in his beak and moved to drape it on one of the obsidian statues a little way up the staircase near an alcove he’d come to think of as his rooms. “I don’t mind the pin.” He said, pulling at the fabric until it draped artfully over an outstretched arm. “I can always find a new one.”  


 

* * *

 

 

 

It is with a little reluctance that Fai changes back into his human form, burning through his feathers and stepping out of the ashes a small and fragile thing again.

 

“You don’t have to go.”

 

Fai has his back turned as he dons his robe once more. He can’t help the smile. “You needn’t worry. It’s only one day.” He holds the fabric closed with a hand on his shoulder as he searches for a broach replacement. It seems no matter where he moves, Kurogane’s snout trails closely at his elbow, always just slightly in his way.

 

“To pet their egos?” The dragon actually goes so far as to nudge his arm as Fai attempts to search a golden pile with some sort of systematic strategy. The blonde has to bite his tongue. A dragon complaining about such a thing is really just too much.

 

“To keep a promise.” Fai assures him, finally laying eyes on a likely looking trinket. It is quick work to weave a straight pin through the fabric. On its end is an ornamental crest of the royal family that still rules Kurogane’s city, decimated as it is. “You don’t happen to know where any shackles are, do you? It helps if I keep up the whole ‘sacrifice’ image.”

 

Kurogane huffs and rolls onto his side, nosing into Fai’s hand in bored protest.

 

“I’ll take that as a ‘no’.” Fai trails his palm down that jaw, petting along smooth scales idly for a few moments, then he steps away. “I guess I’ll have to do this myself.”

 

For a while, the cavern falls to a hush. Gold clinks as Fai searches the horde, all the while murmuring soft nothings of conversation. Kurogane remains mute, but follows Fai’s movements with a single eye. It is not altogether unpleasant.

 

“Ah ha!”

 

“Did you find something?” Kurogane rolls back onto his stomach. So much for feigning disinterest.

 

The blonde pulls a pair of golden cuffs connected with a long chain from a pile, only to find them almost hopelessly tangled with many other lengths and a larger circlet. “Oh.” Fai laughs off the disappointment. “This may take some time.”

 

“Then attend to it here.”

 

Fai knows based on what short time they’ve spent together, that what he really means is ‘sit in the crook of my arm and entertain me’. It’s very demanding, but Fai decides Kurogane is young enough to get away with it. Because of this and this alone does he acquiesce without reproach.

It has nothing to do with the way it is so comfortable to lounge there cradled on either side by muscle and scale.

 

Nothing at all. 

  
That is how they end up curled together for more than an hour as Fai carefully picks apart the delicate chains. When the last tangle finally falls free, it is with great satisfaction that Fai slips the cuffs onto his wrists and the choker around his neck with a soft click. As actual restraints, they are absolutely useless, even more so to a phoenix. The metal is so delicate; he could probably melt through it before he even felt a tension in the line.

 

But it is instead the idea of control that the jeweler had been pursuing. In that respect he or she had done brilliantly. Gold trails thinly from wrist to wrist which are in turn encased in cuffs, solid and heavy against his skin. The collar rides a little high, not quite hitting shoulders, but instead holding against the tendons of his neck. The pressure is comfortable enough but undeniably there. From here connected at the front and back of his throat there are four loops that hang to each side, trailing along his upper arms as he moves. Fai knows a little of the history of pieces such as these. They were originally created for his species and the humans, as they ever do, followed the fashion, though that origin is now somewhat lost to legend for them. Fai wonders how much it cost traded this far along the coast.  
  
“I like you in chains like this.”

 

Fai’s head snaps to him.

 

Sure Kurogane has been a little clumsy with his obvious interest.  
  
Perhaps Fai has been lacking in rebukes.  
  
But they haven’t-

 

It certainly isn’t warranted to-

 

“Excuse me!?”  
  
Kurogane pulls his head back in what is almost a flinch. Too late he is realizing his mistake. “Not like that! I just-”

 

Fai can feel the almost tectonic motion as Kurogane prepares to shift his weight. To stand up. To retreat. He puts a hand out flat against the swell of muscle he is sitting against with a gentle pressure down. It is enough to calm the beast. Were he not so otherwise occupied, Fai would be finding it funny that such a small touch could hold him down.

 

“I just mean it-” Kurogane hesitates, then opts for bravery. “You look nice like that.”  
  
For a moment it’s all Fai can do to look at him, eyes wide and clear, taken aback by the innocence of the sentiment. But then a much more wicked glint crosses those blues. He leans back and traces a hand faux casually down from the choker, past the hollow of his neck and between the barest hint of pectoral muscle. “In chains.” He reiterates.

 

“You know what I mean.” Kurogane growls, already frustrated and flustered before the argument has barely begun.

 

To this Fai only leers. “Yes, possibly better than you do.”

 

And with that Kurogane is done trying to share his feelings. He makes a deep noise of disgust. “I take it back. I don’t like them anymore.”  
  
“It’s alright to. You don’t have to pretend you don’t.” Fai leans back and stretches his arms above himself and twists the chains tight in what even the phoenix would probably admit is an unfair amount of teasing. Or is it a joke? Perhaps a dare? It is only because of Kurogane’s youth that he allows himself to go this far. Any dragon with experience would have pounced by now, but Fai thinks Kurogane won’t.

 

Probably.

 

“What ever conflict you’re feeling right now, you’d do well to embrace it.” Pushing his luck he brings his wrists down and nuzzles a cheek against them. “It’s in your nature.”

 

“Must you wear them?” It is a low and quiet growl.

 

“I’ve a part to play.”

 

Kurogane tucks his chin down, almost arching against his own neck. “For the village?”

 

“Would you prefer I played it for you?”

 

It’s out of his mouth before he can stop himself. They both wait in dangerous silence.

 

This is nowhere near part of Fai’s mission and he should really stop, but he can’t remember the last time he was this _excited_.

 

Slowly, keeping a steady eye contact, Kurogane lowers his head, snout running up the side of a thigh, then nuzzling into his stomach. He’s careful, but it’s a weight Fai feels keenly against his smaller frame. The breath is warm through the silk of his robe, now in disarray from the movements. The dragon huffs against him, growling out a puff of smoke and Fai tilts his head back with a slight smile against the feeling while his knees shift. When Kurogane speaks, he can feel it against the flat of his stomach.

 

“I’d prefer you didn’t play at all.”  
  
A chill runs down Fai’s spine and his eyes shoot open.

 

“Wait!”

 

Kurogane had thought he’d had the blonde pinned and is more than surprised when suddenly he has scarce heard his voice than Fai is already several paces away, fixing the hem of his robe and struggling to breathe evenly.  
  
“I’ve hurt you?” His voice is all confusion and concern.

 

“I- No.” Fai laughs a little awkwardly. “No. I need to get going.” He slips off the wrist cuffs and chains in something of a hurry and replaces it with the first armband he can lay eyes on. He attempts to do the same for the choker, but the latch is complex and his hands slightly shaking. He gives up with a curse and leaves it be, turning towards the passage way that leads back to open air and sky.

 

“You are distressed.” Kurogane says the simple words as if they are a mystery. 

  
“I need to go.”

 

“You will return.” It’s not quite a command. Not quite a question. Perhaps it is simply a hope.

 

The blonde turns back over a shoulder with a hollow smile and fake cheer, but does not stop his ascent.

 

“Of course!”

  
  
Even Fai himself does not know if he is lying.


	2. When We Come to It

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so format change. Good? Good. ^^

 

It happens city after city and Fai is no longer surprised.

 

He enters as a mistrusted pauper with little more than whispers of reputation, (sometimes spread by himself) and a trinket or two of inexplicably ancient gold. He does what he must to speak to the ruling body. There is always a fight among those in power. ‘This stranger is a thief.’ ‘He is not to be trusted.’

 

They’re not wrong, but he _is_ here to help.  
  
Besides, stealing is such a strange concept of human invention. He has never _really_ gotten the feel for what is and what isn’t.  
  
Fai won’t visit a city that isn’t desperate, so eventually he does get his way. They take him more often than not to the high priest. He is begrudgingly adorned however they dress their sacrifices. They take him to the dragon and leave him to die.

 

Except he doesn’t.  
  
He’ll return some days later shining in new pieces of gold pilfered from the beast’s lair. Sometimes they are purely ornamental, with meanings lost to even Fai. Sometimes they are the chains of submission such as now. It is not uncommon they are golden plates of armor. On those days he is also covered in red.    
  
Fai is skilled in diplomacy, but he will not shy from that option either. It all depends on the dragon, really.

 

In any case, when he returns, he returns a hero.

 

“More wine?”

 

It is the princess herself that offers to pour it for him.  
  
Fai is used to dealing with proud and haughty tyrants, and so does not miss the disapproving look the queen casts in her younger sister’s direction.

 

“Thank you, but I think perhaps I have drunken my fill.” This may or may not be a massive breach of etiquette but Fai has learned if he bows low enough while he says it, he can get away with almost anything.

 

He is invited to the royal dinning hall, but in this city no one catches his eye with an invitation to their bed. It’s a little curious, but not unheard of. And just as well. In the end he spends the night wandering the streets, entirely unafraid and well known enough that when he passes a noble household still brightly lit and spilling music, he is invited inside with open arms and tall drinks. If he is to fall into the embrace of a beautiful human or two, it isn’t such a crime.

 

Anything to drag his thoughts back down the mountain.

 

In the end, Fai doesn’t return the next day. Or the day after that.  
  
He finds himself instead on the beach, watching sailors load crates onto the large ship at the pier. It’s the boat he could leave on if he wants to.  
  
He drags his fingers through the sand, hunched over his own knees and listens to the surf.

 

Maybe he should. Kurogane obviously cares about his city. It had taken only one starlit conversation for the dragon to see he should stop taking his frustrations out on it. The longer he stays… What purpose would it serve?

 

There are people out there who need him.

 

To waste his time with this fledgling…

 

And if he is truly growing lonely, he should be bonding with one of the allied dragons. Someone with reach and influence.

 

With something akin to horror, Fai realizes he has just considered bonding with Kurogane.  
  
He stands, more than a little shocked and disgusted with himself, and turns sharply to walk back to his apartment.

 

That is enough time at the beach. The sun is clearly starting to affect him.

 

 

* * *

 

 

After five days of silence, Fai’s shriek pierces through the jungle, throwing up flocks of frightened birds, so that even if Kurogane hadn’t been listening for it, he would have known exactly where to go.  
  
The spot is in the middle of thick trees. Fai does not make their meeting easy, but the dragon manages to find him slumped as he is against the trunk of a tree. He does not look well.

 

“You called.”

 

Fai squints up at him like he is out of focus. “Take me home.”

 

“To my cave?”

 

“No, to Valeria.” Fai sneers sarcastically, then snaps when Kurogane doesn’t get the joke. “Yes, your cave!”

 

It’s rude but this sort of reaction is uncharacteristic of the Fai he has come to know. He doesn’t take it personally. Instead he uses a careful claw to catch Fai’s ankle to pull him out of his huddle by the tree and leans down to observe him closely.

 

“You are ill.”

 

“I’m not ill.” Fai flails a little indignantly. “I’m drunk. Stop judging me and take me home.”

  
  
Kurogane’s head pulls back and he narrows his eyes at him. “You called me down here so I could give you a ride?”

 

Fai, reaches out with a hand and pushes the tip of Kurogane’s snout down and meets his gaze. “Well, I’m not trekking up this twice damned mountain tonight, so yes. I did.”

 

The dragon is simply too amused to be offended. He lowers his head but when Fai tries and fails twice to take his spot on the back of his neck, it is clear they aren’t going anywhere for a while. Instead he catches Fai under a claw to hold him down, the better to scrutinize him.

 

“Watch it!” Fai protests as the weight settles against his chest. “You’re heavy.”

 

“Why are you drunk?”

 

“I missed my boat.” Fai is looking up at the stars. Back at the tree roots he just vacated. Anywhere but Kurogane. Even still, again that hand comes up to wrap around a reptilian toe. “I went to the tavern instead.”

 

“You were going to leave?” It’s sharp with betrayal.

  
  
Fai rolls his eyes. “But I didn’t, did I?”

 

“Because you missed your boat.” Kurogane repeats, starting to gather the strand of narrative from the phoenix’s rather enigmatic excuse for a conversation. “And why did you miss your boat?”

 

Fai frowns and closes his eyes in a grimace as he rolls as much as he can to the side, face half hidden behind blonde hair and forehead pressed to the keratin of the claw holding him down. He mumbles something slurred that Kurogane does not catch.

 

“What?”

 

“I said, because I want to stay!”

 

Kurogane grins and the reptilian toes holding him down flex ever so slightly. “With me?”

 

Fai says it as though he is admitting defeat. “Yes. With you.”

 

Kurogane’s tail is held high as he shifts into more of a sitting posture. “This is good.”

 

“No.” Fai corrects him. “This is foolish. Bordering on the self-destructive.”

 

Kurogane growls and Fai can see the glow of fire down his throat. “Speak plainly or do not speak at all.”

 

The blonde would probably choose the second if not for the liquid courage he’d been drinking all afternoon. He pushes at the palm holding him down and sits up as Kurogane settles a foot to each side of him. He rubs a hand against his temple. “I am not my own to give to you.”

 

In fact returning to see Kurogane at all feels a little like theft.

 

He looks down at him for a moment, then lowers his head warily. “You are already bonded?”

  
  
“No.” Fai hesitates, hands fidgeting against each other. “But I owe my life and service to someone.” When the dragon shifts a brow, obviously expecting more, Fai sighs and explains himself. “It’s on his command that I am here now, monitoring the unaligned dragons of the outlands.”

 

“In effort to… align us?”

 

“No.” Fai pulls his knees in and curls fingertips around his toes. “Just keep an eye on you, really. Stop you when you grow too bold.” It’s quite the pitiful posture for someone who has just admitted what amounts to draconian murder.

 

Fai can see Kurogane getting frustrated with this state of affairs. It’s justified, he supposes.

 

“Why should some distant force care of my actions here?”

 

It is a question Fai has been asking himself more and more lately. At least in the dragon’s case, he knows the answer. “One rampaging dragon can do much harm against the reputation of all the rest. It pays to keep the humans from getting too nervous.”

 

Kurogane barks a laugh. “You fear a master who fears humanity?” He stops when he catches the expression on the blonde’s face. “What?”

 

Fai looks up at him with a grim smile and shakes his head. “You hatchling.”

  
  
And that really is a step too far for his draconian pride to take. He snatches Fai in a claw and holds him up at eye-level.

 

“Shit!” Fai groans against the movement. “Don’t squeeze me!” He warns a bit desperately, pushing back weakly against the grip. “I will throw up on you.”

 

Kurogane has little interest in Fai’s current state and even less mercy. Something else entirely is on his mind. “Let your so called master come, then. I will show him something to truly fear.”  
  
Fai, resigned to his fate, at least works an arm free and leans his head against it. “You underestimate the humans.”

  
“On the contrary, I have not been driven soft by old age and comfort.”

 

The phoenix sighs and wishes he did not know how very wrong Kurogane is.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... Did you think it was Tomoyo? Because it was Tomoyo.


	3. In Your Court

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact: My spellcheck wants to turn 'Kurogane' into 'arrogance'. 
> 
> >.>

The next morning Fai wakes with a punishing headache, but Kurogane is gentle with him. Beyond being a quiet presence in the caves, he leaves the phoenix be. The next day is better. As is the day after that. Then for a long time, every day is a good day.

 

Kurogane has a tendency to shift in his sleep, and each morning Fai wakes to find himself a little more cradled than when he nodded off to the sound of slow and deep breathing. Waking up in the same place, with the same companion soothes parts of his psyche he hadn’t even realized were worn.

 

He is a welcome guest at the castle. He keeps up the illusion of his humanity and the nobles all treat him as such. He shows up each time in the chains of his supposed captivity and they reward him richly for what they assume must be great sacrifice. Though the city is small, they are currently working their way out of economic depression by taking advantage of all the natural dyes of the region. Their renaissance of textile design is played out brightly in the robes and other articles of clothing the princess insists on procuring for him. Once back on the mountain, they don’t see much use, too fine to chance burning them, but it is nice that for the first time in a long time, the shirt on Fai’s back is not the only one he owns.   
  
The dread creeps in little by little, that tiny bit stronger everyday.   
  
He doesn’t know what’s going to happen.

 

Maybe they’ll come for him. Make an example out of Kurogane.   
  
Maybe they’ll presume his death and send someone new.

 

Maybe they’ll just forget about him.

 

Maybe they already have.

 

“Fai…” Kurogane presses his head against his back, calling him to the here and now. The solid feel of him calms Fai in a way that perhaps isn’t warranted but he appreciates all the same. The gesture is the latest in the slow progression of intimacies they are growing more and more comfortable with sharing.

 

Fai turns and leans into the contact as a hand covered in ornamentation comes up to stroke along the ridge of Kurogane’s snout. He turns to rest his cheek against the space between his eyes.

  
Kurogane can’t really speak quietly, but he can speak lowly.

 

“You should worry less.”

 

Fai is certain it is Kurogane who should worry more.

 

* * *

 

 

The dragon doesn’t bother hiding his curiosity as Fai fastens the garter around his thigh. A chain is laced through gaps along the upper edge and this he ties around his waist, keeping the contraption from falling.

 

“Is that…” Kurogane’s head tips to the side and he can’t quite believe it.

 

“Dragon leather?” Fai asks lightly, hoping Kurogane is not going to press the issue. “Yes.”

 

There is a slight pause. Then, “Did you know her? Or him?” He makes the first guess based on the smoothness of the scales but it could be either.

 

Fai rests his foot on a stone, the better to reach the bindings that he carefully tightens. “Briefly, I suppose you could say.” Fai’s finger tips run over the gray-blue of the scales and along the row of flints set therein, checking that none of the edges have been worn too dull.

 

Kurogane doesn’t say anything, but the silence isn’t a comfortable one. Fai risks a glance at him and finds pretty much exactly what he’s expecting.

 

“It’s necessary.” Fai moves on to the matching cuff around his wrist, pulling it tight with his teeth before knotting the laces. “Anything else would burn off.”

 

“Could you not have used phoenix skin?”

 

But Fai just shakes his head as the final piece, a band perhaps three finger widths wide is tied at the back of the neck. “We burn the same as anything, Kuro-pu. Where did you think the ash came from?”

 

Kurogane lets it drop but finds a home for his displeasure elsewhere. “Which so odd. And causes a mess! It’s like every aspect of your being has been carefully crafted to annoy me.”

 

To which Fai simply shoots him a small smirk. “Oh, you’ve no _idea_.”

 

The dragon looks about to demand an explanation, but Fai straightens suddenly. “Ready?” He walks barefoot to the center of what he’s come to think of as their arena. In deference to his delicate skin, these bouts have a tendency to happen at sunset. In the dying light, the hardened lava is dark and smooth beneath his feet. His arms fall to the side, feet staggered and knees bent as he takes a fighting posture.   
  
Kurogane lowers his front and spreads his wings half extended and close to the ground, the draconian equivalent. Fai can hear the organic machinery that is stoking the fires deep in that chest.

 

Today, Fai makes the first move.

 

In a comfortable arc, his wrist draws back against the garter on his thigh, bringing the sharp edges of flint against each other, causing sparks to fall thick and full into his hand. It’s something of a relief to feel the surety of them once again. What he does not hold in his palm falls through his fingers in a bright shower past knee and calf until the sparks die on the ground leaving nothing behind. With a flick of the wrist he crosses his arms in front of his chest before bringing them apart again, an arc of fire maintained between them.

 

There are many things in life Fai cannot control. But with his flints firm around his skin and fire burning along his hands, he for once feels like an arbiter of fate. He can no longer count how many times he has walked into battle like this, but each defeated opponent adds another drop to the confidence he possesses in this moment. He sets his shoulders and exhales firmly through slightly parted lips. His eyes narrow dangerously.

 

Fai stills in anticipation but the dragon does not respond. In fact, it very much appears as if Kurogane has forgotten how to breathe.

 

“Kurgy?” Fai narrows his stance and straightens up, hands coming to his sides but fire still licking up to his wrists. “Come on,” He chides, not really meeting Kurogane’s intensity anymore and ducking his chin. “We’re barely started. Don’t tell me you’ve lost focus so easily.”

 

“Again with these party tricks.” His tone says that whatever they’re doing next, it isn’t fighting.  

 

Fai shakes his head with a smile and shifts his weight comfortably into one hip.

 

Training like this isn’t a joke. There will come a day forces beyond Kurogane’s comprehension will find them, and they’ll have nothing but each other to fall back on. Fai knows this like he knows the sun will rise.

  
Even so, what harm could there be in just one more day of sloth?

 

He takes a few steps forward, close enough that Kurogane, now sitting tall, could reach out and touch him, but not so close he is a strain to see.

 

Not even in his own mind does he admit to the other sins he may be contemplating.  

 

“As if you would even know a party if you saw one.” Fai does not miss the way Kurogane’s tail is arching to the side, as if to frame the place where he stands. It would be an impediment to escape, if he were worried about such things anymore.

 

“I’m starting to see the appeal of your flints.”

 

“If we get separated, how else am I to find a reliable flame?”

 

Kurogane’s chin pulls back and in. “As if I would let us get separated.

 

It’s bravado plain and simple and Fai knows better than to try and argue pride with a dragon.

 

The blonde steps up onto his tail where it is little more than a step’s height tall, then with impeccable balance, follows that spine in a curve back up until he stands on the sloping plane that is Kurogane’s flank. “That isn’t a party trick by the way.”

 

The dragon has had to twist to keep Fai in his sights. “Oh?”

 

“No. This _…_ ” Fai wipes his hands together, collecting the flame until it is a tiny but intense brightness rolled spherical between two palms. Then he holds a hand up and with a wave of his digits, the light weaves between them at speed, as if it is a spindle and Fai’s hand the tapestry. “Now _this_ is a party trick.”

 

“How do you…?”

 

The hands come back together and the flame is spread flat between palms. “And this.” When they separate the quality of the light has changed such that fire seems to trail, alive for an impossible moment longer as the phoenix’s hands weave intricate arcs and patterns into the ether.

 

Fai can’t help the smile on his face.  “And this.”  He takes the flame into his palms again and with the careful flicking of index and middle digits, he throws tiny comets in a tall arc from hand to hand. It’s not a perfect juggle, but he does a decent job of keeping four of them moving before he finally misses one and it burns out harmlessly against Kurogane’s skin. “Oops!” The others are caught and snuffed into nothingness in carbon-covered hands. It’s been a long time since he did anything like this for fun.  “Sorry.” He says, passing the sole of a foot over the place the stray flame fell, knocking away any char it might have left behind. “I’m a little out of practice.”

 

“Can you teach me that?”

 

Fai tries and fails to stifle a laugh. “Now that I’m showing you actual frivolities, you’re suddenly interested?”

 

“I’ve never seen flame dance like that before.”

 

One of the only things Fai regrets about their isolation, is that no one beside himself will witness the way his young dragon keeps stumbling into terrible and clichéd pick-up lines. He doubts anyone would believe him should he ever try to share the story.

 

With a frustration he feels keenly, the blonde bites back the teasing Kurogane wouldn’t possibly understand and instead addresses the request.

 

“Sorry. I really can’t teach you. It’s just not in your biology.” Dragons create flame. It’s a miracle of nature. Fai doesn’t see their somewhat limited control of it to be a short coming. “But, it’s alright that we’re different. You're the axe. I'm the scalpel.”

 

“An axe?” Kurogane looks at him as if he’s just offered him spoiled food. “Surely if anything I am a sword.”

 

Ah yes. Again with the draconian pride. If Fai weren’t so hardwired to find it amusing, he’d probably find it insufferable.

 

“Then a sword you shall be.” The blonde walks the curve where back becomes side becomes stomach. With a careful crouch he slides off and lands on solid ground again. Kurogane’s eyes track him and his tail again curls in that little bit tighter.

 

Fai holds up a hand. “Throw me a light?”

 

Kurogane pauses, like he’s doing the mental calculus. The phoenix is perfectly capable of creating his own flame from the flints, but has asked for his anyway.

 

Fai watches all of this pass across his face, then smiles when instead of saying as much, the dragon simply gives him one, fast and narrow as they’d been practicing. Fai catches it easily and turns, giving Kurogane an easy view of his bare back.

 

There is an intimacy to sharing flame. Even with a foe. But battle is one thing. Ceremony is one thing. This? To do it for amusement. For fun. Dare he say it, for pleasure?  Suffice to say he would not partake, had they an audience.

 

Fai glances back as his hands drag over the curve of each shoulder.

           

He smiles a little ruefully and his chin falls minutely down, eyes skittering away and along the ground. All of this and Kurogane probably has no idea.

 

Even so, he can’t bring himself to regret it. With a deep breath and a slow exhale, the fire at his shoulders falls like a cape against his back. Then, as his ribs expand to take air back in, the flames tighten into a familiar form. He stretches his neck one way, then the other, rolls his shoulders once, then with a sigh presses fiery wings up and open.

 

When he turns to check, Kurogane looks impressed, a little entranced maybe, but he still doesn’t _get_ it.  Fai wonders just how much this is going to take.

 

Turning slightly he lets his wings flutter down, held comfortably a little open at his back, framing his shoulders.  The hot breeze they create swirls around his knees and ankles, the eddies of its motion traced by tiny embers.

 

With a quiet expression, blue eyes catch red.  Fai gathers the fire of his hands to a single flame burning off the tips of his first and middle finger on the right hand. Maintaining eye contact, he licks up the seam between his fingers, orange light playing off his elegant bone structure and catching the small flecks of gold that seem to always find their way  to his skin.  Then lips seal around his finger tips, extinguishing the flame and killing its light.  Fai is unhurried when he pulls his hand away with a quiet pop.

 

Claws scrape as they try to dig into ground that will not give.  Kurogane’s eyes have gone very wide.

 

Fai tips his head back with a lazy grin, eyes half-lidded.   
  
_Finally_. 


	4. To the Fire

Fai isn't really sure how he ever convinced himself he enjoyed sex with humans. 

 

"Damn you and the rotten egg from which you hatched!"

 

There is the low burbling from deep in Kurogane's throat as slow breath works it's way through the machinery there. The flat of his tongue advances again, thick muscle starting between his thighs and dragging up between stomach and chest. Fai presses his hips into it, cock caught flat against his stomach under the pressure, the subtle bumps of the texture of Kurogane's reptilian tongue just about driving him mad. His hands clench reflexively where they hold onto the grooved surface of talons, the better to brace himself where he sits cradled in his dragon's two front claws. The left hand holds steady, but the right, already covered in slick saliva as it it, looses its grip under the strain of it's own strength.  

 

Kurogane's muscle reaches the apex of it's stroke, and for a moment there is relief. Only for it to unfurl and land heavily once again, this time the underside of his tongue dragging down Fai's torso, all the vessels and ridges of connective tissue felt keenly. The blonde doesn't know if it's intentional teasing or simple lack of technique that has Kurogane pulling back at an angle that eases up pressure right at his waist, but wrapping two legs around him and pulling him close soon solves that. The grip of his thighs pulls tighter and tighter as the muscle narrows towards its tip, then slips away all together.  

 

The moan that Kurogane had been dragging out of Fai ends with a frustrated whine and a quiet curse. 

 

Honestly, it's a mystery. How many decades has it been that he's made do with the lukewarm heat of a friendly-enough villager? Even with two or three partners at a time, how had he ever believed it could compare to this all-consuming pressure? Sure he'd enjoyed it well enough. Found solace in a brief connection. Responded to the hands upon his body. But it was _never_ like this.   
  
Never did he want and need like he wants and needs in this moment. Kurogane is watching him with sharp, predatory eyes and it does nothing to douse the heat that he feels from navel to knees, every heart beat felt in the most visceral of ways. He has a mind to bring a hand to himself, traveling from shoulder down, but as the slick pad of his thumb catches a nipple, a wicked exhilaration shoots through him and his hand stalls. He cries out and his knees fall reflexively open as he brings finger tips back and forth across the flesh there, the sensation shooting along nerves that bring him that tortuous bit closer to climax. 

 

"Kurgy!" He pants brokenly. 

 

The answer is a rumbling growl, heady with smoke and a frustrated fireball blooming across the ceiling. The dragon's head snaps back down to look at him, eyes wild, and Fai closes his own as he shudders. 

 

He'd be embarrassed if he weren't so achingly turned on. This wasn't exactly how Fai had imagined their encounter to go. He'd foreseen perhaps a shy fumbling. A gentle Kurogane, constantly checking to see if he was comfortable. Then he'd guide his charge in how to make love between two such as them selves.   
  
But it seems he'd greatly underestimated youthful... uh... enthusiasm? 

 

Kurogane was  _barbaric_ with it. 

 

Fai grips his own chest, biting a lip against the  pin prick of pain before his nails relent and he slides his own hand down, fingers wide and hand firm as it comes to rest just below his waist. It's meant to be calming, a grounding gesture, but his skin is slick with warm dragon saliva and the sensation does something else entirely. He turns his head, trying to find some respite from the overwhelming feeling of it all, but here too his cheek drags along the smooth-worn pads of the feet holding him. There is just no escape and Fai feels about ready to burn right through his skin.   
  
Which... with the way Kurogane has been throwing sparks throughout their encounter, is something he means entirely literally.   


"Kurgy! I can't-" Fai struggles between labored gasps. "I need to finish! I need-"

 

He hears Kurogane's breath catch, then the dragon speaks in a voice that is ragged with gravel. "How?"

 

And isn't that just the question?   
  
Because what Fai wants... What he wants more than anything right now, is to climb into that hot cavern of a mouth, straddle that cursed tongue and rut against it. He wants Kurogane's lips to close around his waist and to feel the force as he sucks at him, relentless until he comes. But that would involve a very careful control of jaw and teeth. One that the past half hour has clearly demonstrated Kurogane does not posses. Attempting such a thing right now would almost certainly end with fangs through the stomach and death by dismemberment. 

 

What a hell of a way to go though.   
  
Kurogane catches Fai's ankle between his lips and pulls him down. Fai shrieks a little in surprise but it is enough to knock him out of ill-timed and morbid fantasies.  "How?" He repeats, and this time, it's a command. 

 

The phoenix's hand finally slips down and around himself, only taking the barest hesitation before his starts stroking along the shaft. "Your tongue." Each word appears to be a struggle. "The tip, but down. Like-" Words fail and he simply mimes with his own mouth, tongue extended but the end curved back on itself.  Human anatomy didn't really suffice, but Kurogane gets the picture. He presses between Fai's legs again, this time holding steady and meeting the pressure when Fai thrusts up against him. 

 

It feels like something precious, a tribute of highest honor that the phoenix should fall apart for him like this. Though the curses flow free and clumsy off of Fai's tongue, they wash over Kurogane like exaltation. 

 

When he comes, the clear tone of his cry echoes through the caverns, sweeter than any hymn. 

 

* * *

 

It isn't that Fai blacks out per say. It's more that he has simply surrendered to the easy oblivion that follows release. He is aware of movement, but surely that's alright. The entire cosmos moves independent of creatures as weak as he and this corner of it will trace it's trajectories without his input for a few more minutes.

 

There is metallic heat against his back, but no sharp edges to cut or bruise him. Scales press against his side and he curls to embrace it. He knows by touch that his hand is tracing below Kurogane's eye and his knee rests along the bone structure of his snout. He could stay like this- _Wants_ to stay like this forever. Let time slip away until the sun swallows them whole. His lips smile silently at the thought where they press lightly against his dragon's skin. 


	5. Midnight Oil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I messed with the chapter titles a little. Hope that's ok.

Fai pants and gasps in his two front claws, coming down from whatever strange pleasure has just consumed him.

Kurogane is great and powerful. Kurogane is a tyrant and a force of nature. He does not think of anything as 'cute'.

But...

The affection, the adoration... He's never felt this strongly about another creature. Fai has him spell bound: With the long legs and clever hands that he's seen weaving light and flame in a way he'd never even thought possible. With his mouth that rests slightly parted; For once the lips usually confounding him, always one step ahead, are silent. This phoenix, this new and interesting challenge lies sweet and sated by his own actions and he knows deeply there is a rightness to this.

It feels like he can't get close enough. Here Fai is held right in his palms and all he wants to do is hold him tighter. Squeeze him. Crush him and-

Scared by his own thoughts, he deposits the phoenix on the pile of gold where they sleep and circles back a safe distance away to stare at him.

Fai seems unperturbed, worryingly unaware of his own defenselessness.

Kurogane has killed before. Of course he has. That's most of the reason Fai is here in the first place. It takes hardly any effort to break a fragile human body. He's even done it on accident. The thought has never really disturbed him until now.

"Fai?" He's hesitant to speak.

The blonde sighs. It could be an answer. It could be a coincidence. To be honest, Fai is too out of it to tell.

And that too makes him nervous.

Fai is breathing, steady and deep but so fast. Is that how fast humans normally breathe? How has he never paid attention to that before? Should he be worried? In retrospect that final cry had sounded a little boarder-line painful.

He takes a careful step forward, nudges gently into the side of Fai's body with the bridge of his nose. "Are you well?"

A spoken answer does not come, but Fai rolls into him, holding his profile the way he sometimes holds his foreleg in sleep. It is enough to ease the dragon's worry, and he is content to wait.

Well...

No, because 'content' is the wrong word. There are certain parts of his body screaming for attention. 'Willing' is far more accurate.

He is willing to wait.

Is seems an age passes before the blonde sits up and regains awareness.   
  
"Fai?"

"Kurgy..." And there it is again. That tone so tender it sounds like worship.   
  
"Fai, I need-"

But the phoenix cuts him off with a shush and a calming hand along his cheek. "I know."

At Fai's instruction, Kurogane turns onto his back, nestled into the small mountain of treasure. It is not a position that is particularly comfortable for him, physically or psychologically, but he and Fai are alone in these caves. If there is one place he can afford some vulnerability, surely it must be here. Fai walks down the side of his body, hand trailing down his stomach. At the base of his tail, Kurogane's arousal is exposed, lying stiff to either side. 

He climbs onto his tail with a practiced grace, then keeping a careful eye on Kurogane's body, moves to stand sideways, straddled over the dragon's hardness. "Have you ever..." He trails off. 

"Not like this." 

Fai nods slightly, then slowly eases down until he sits in the place where the two prongs of Kurogane's sex meet, facing one side and running a palm along the thick grooves and ridges there. He expects the groan. He does not expect the question that follows it. 

"And you?" 

Fai blinks at him. "With a dragon? Of course. Though..." Almost as an afterthought he twists his torso, laying a hand lightly on the neglected prong.  "I suppose not exactly like this." 

Fai moves to lean against the hardness in front of him, but the dragon stops him with his words. 

"You are disquieted." 

"It's nothing." 

But that's not enough, because the blonde-

Well, he doesn't look happy.   
  
"Speak, Fai."

"I'm not used to doing this alone." 

The dragon pushes up on a forearm, the better to see him. "But I'm-"

"Another phoenix, I mean." Fai doesn't look at him. Doesn't look at anything, really. "In my last bonding there were two of us." 

"You've been bonded before?" 

The blonde turns to him, but it is something of a side-glance. "I am two thousand years old. Did you think I spent them just waiting for your hatching?" 

Kurogane takes that in. He'd known Fai was older, but...  
  
"And this act; It reminds you of them?" Fai avoids his gaze. "The ones you are missing?" 

There is a hollow silence to the caves. It seems they both hold their breath. 

"That is unfortunate."

It's not a judgement. Nothing like anger. Simply a slightly rueful acknowledgement paid to the awkwardness of the situation. But it is enough. The tension breaks and with relief he sees Fai relax, crack the smallest of smiles. 

"I shall endeavor to overcome it." The blonde promises, the formality of his language something of gentle sarcasm. Then he is leaning forward as he had been before Kurogane interrupted. There is more the dragon could say, but when the phoenix lowers his body weight and holds his arousal as if in an embrace, any coherent thought slips his mind. Then a leg traces down the other prong and Fai's mouth descends. After that, he thinks nothing at all. 

* * *

 

Kurogane doesn't really _want_ to wake up, but Fai is making that 'Oh God, what is about to explode _this_ time' noise. 

 

A quick scramble finds him in a side archway of the main cavern. His wings are tucked close to his body and his beak is open as he spits a white-hot arc of fire at the small pile of gold it seems he's collected.

"The hell!?" 

A blue eye rolls back, spots him and the phoenix sputters, the flame dying away with his cough. 

"Kuro! You made me lose my spark!" 

He doesn't know why Fai should be indignant. He's not the one whose gold is currently half melted on the floor. 

"You're destroying it, now?"

"Using it." Fai chides. "Throw me a flame." 

Kurogane very much wants to roll his eyes but does as requested. Fai catches it in a talon, then condenses it down, something blue-hot and angry. This he plucks from his foot in the tip of his beak, then forces the flame out from there, finishing off what was left of jewelry and what looked like platters and goblets. Only when the metal well and truly is a puddle on the floor does he let the fire die again. 

 "I'll run out at this rate." Kurogane grumbles. 

Which is ridiculous of course. The dragon's horde fills the cave and litters almost every available surface. 

Fai plays along anyway. 

"How terrible." He dips a beak into the puddle and Kurogane watches in open fascination as he holds out a wing and buries it deep in the feathers, grooming right next to his skin. Then he pulls away along the shaft, setting the fibers of his feather in order. At the same time it leaves behind a metallic coating, thick at the base, thinning to barely a residue by the half of its length. "Does it make you thirst for more?" Fai returns to the molten source and moves on the next, cleaning and coating. "Does it make you think of conquest?" 

"Conquest?" Kurogane settles onto his stomach, but watches Fai a little suspiciously. At least half of what trips out of that mouth is nonsense, but when he really has something to say, the phoenix tends to grow cryptic. 

"More land. More cites. More gold." Fai scrapes his beak on a hitherto clean section of the floor, first one side then the other, leaving behind metallic streaks and smoothing the metal that has not come off on his feathers. It forms to his beak perfectly, the same shape except shining. And sharp. "Then you could replace what I've taken." It wouldn't be a terrible time for it either. Fai has left something of a vacuum in the wake of his mission. 

Kurogane watches as he starts on the other wing. "I think I'd simply prefer a lair-mate that didn't create so many messes." 

  
Fai's head appears from behind a veil of feathers to scrutinize him. What ever he's looking for, he must find it in Kurogane's expression, because he goes back to work with a small smile. 

 

"That has to be heavy." Kurogane crowds his work space and Fai hops to the side as Kurogane starts dragging a talon through the edge of the puddle, drawing designs in his idleness. "Can you even fly like that?" 

  
"What self respecting phoenix can't handle a little gold dust?" 

It's not exactly what Kurogane would call the hard plated coating now running through the iridescence of Fai's colors. 

"Is it armor?" 

"Hardly. Just ornamental." 

"And for this you waste my gold?"

"I like to think of it as 'our' gold." 

Without warning, Kurogane reaches out to drag Fai's body towards himself, rolling at the same time. After a few squawks and momentary wing flaps of distress, the phoenix settles, talons laying relaxed against Kurogane's chest where he essentially roosts. In this form, their sizes are a little more evenly matched, but Kurogane will always hold the advantage. 

"What are you doing?" 

Kurogane's fore claws come up to run through the blue of Fai's chest. They slip lower, encouraging his wings open and Fai lets him. Crimson eyes go so soft as he cards claws gently through the metal plated flight feathers. 

"Appreciating our gold." 

Fai's eyes press shut like it's all just a little too much. A quiet cooing comes from deep in his throat.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  
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> ~~If you just imagined a pair of beautiful, elegant dragon genitalia, do yourself a favor, and DON'T google 'hemipenes'.~~
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	6. Silver Lining

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much to everyone who has been showing interest in this fic! Your questions make writing so much fun and I really hope the story makes you smile. <3

Fai does't want to scare Kurogane, so he never outright calls it battle training. They race. They spar. He even manages to get the dragon to practice stealth under the guise of tracking jungle birds. But that's what they _are_ doing: Training. And Kurogane takes to it so very well. 

Months pass. The dragon has always been muscled, but now his form holds a grace and discipline. In the sky as on the ground, the two begin to move seamlessly together. Every day, Kurogane grows stronger. Faster. Fiercer. Deadly. 

And in the end, it doesn't matter. 

"Did you hear that?" 

This has become a reoccurring conversation between them. Fai encourages Kurogane to stretch his senses, and he often hears new subtleties in the tapestry of sound that is their jungle home. 

So Fai feels no alarm as he turns to follow his dragon's eye line. At least not until he sees the pale silhouette slip briefly from behind one cloud to another. 

It doesn't matter, because never in a million years, did Fai think Clow would send _him_.   
  
"Stay here."

"What?" The dragon catches his tone and knows instantly something is wrong. 

"Don't follow me." He doesn't even have his flints. How could he have grown so complacent? "Whatever you see, promise you'll stay hidden here beneath the tree line."   
  
"Fai, what-!?" 

But he doesn't stay for an answer. With two strides, Fai has spread his wings and it is only moments before he too disappears behind condensation. 

* * *

 

The element of surprise is the only advantage Fai is going to get in this fight, and he does not want waste it. He stays to the cloud cover.   
  
There is always something a little perverse about a phoenix battle on an overcast day. Slipping above the gloom transports you to a plane of sudden sunlight and such breathtaking beauty. Even when things grow grim, this heavenly landscape refuses to be marred by it. You cannot leave blood stains on a cloud. 

But you can draw an obvious trail in the air currents behind you, so Fai is careful to gain altitude as seamlessly and as silently as he can. It works well enough. The other phoenix again slips into view. In the grey light below, his form had seemed almost lavender, but here above, he looks a radiant white edged with silver. The sight is as always, something of a distraction, but Fai is ready, diving at him with deadly speed, talons out and prepared to strike. 

He hits with a force that knocks the white bird cleanly off his path. For a moment it feels like success, but then he is twisting, grabbing Fai's talons in one of his own and diving. It's a merciless tactic and of course it works. Maybe Fai could have fought another bird, but he can't fight a bird _and_ the force of gravity. He does what he can to resist, but they start to spin as they pick up speed and still he can't wrench his foot free. Only moments from the ground does his opponent let go, pulling up at the last second. There is no such luck for Fai who crashes into the canopy of the trees in an explosion of leaves and branches, then falls heavily to the forest floor below. There is no time to regroup before talons dig into his back and wrap around his throat. 

Why he ever thought he could take on this opponent, he does not know. Perhaps the months of fighting feral dragons? Well, look where hubris has brought him. 

Breathing is impossible. He knows he has about thirty seconds of struggle left before he blacks out. There isn't much to work with, but he manages to get a leg up. His opponent has his flints, one on each ankle, the left wingtip and on a collar. There is just enough gold left on Fai's toes that a hard kick at his opponent's ankle throws a weak spark.   
  
Weak or not, it's enough. 

Fai encourages the flame to consume him as quickly as he can, transforming back to a human body just in time to suck a lung full of air into an aching chest. He scrambles forward, but the talon presses down fast enough to catch him around the waist. 

"Fai?"

He feels too light headed to think properly. "I'm not going back, Yue!" 

"Back? Why would I take you back?" 

Fai freezes. That's not the response he'd been expecting. Gingerly he turns his head from  where his cheek is pressed into the packed earth and moss of the jungle floor. If Yue wanted to kill him, he'd be dead already, but it's not much of a comfort when a grip capable of bone crushing force encircles his entire lower body. There is no such thing as a natural phoenix, but even by that standard, Yue has always been... extra.  

"Then why are you here if not to collect or kill me?" 

"Kill you!? Fai, we stopped hearing news of your travels. I'm..." Yue's head tips to the side like he doesn't quite understand. "I'm here to save you. I'm here to help." 

The pressure on his back relents and Fai rolls over, looking up to watch the bird that stands above him. 

"Then you may report that I am found."

"I am glad of this." 

"But I will not continue the mission." 

Fai winces as he waits to see what wrath will be the price for his treason. Yue's eyes are such an iridescent silver with just a hint of lilac. Fai had forgotten how they always seemed to glow, especially in this form where they play off the black markings around his beak and eyes. 

"Very well." 

He waits, but the rest of that sentence doesn't come. "Very well?" He repeats, as if he can not believe it. 

Yue takes a step back and settles onto his stomach at Fai's feet. "Yes, 'Very well.'" Then he speaks a little more gently. "Brother, I must confess; you are not making much sense. Is your mind entirely whole?" 

"You still call me 'Brother'?"

"Are we not?" 

At that, Fai is a little speechless. Until he isn't. 

"Since when would you exile family?" He would never speak this frankly to Yue anywhere else, but he is upset, he was asphyxiating a few moments ago, and small though it may be, this is _his_ mountain.  

Yue's eyes are more often than not merciless and stone cold. It is not an expression that comes naturally to him, but he attempts softness. 

"You think yourself in exile?" 

"I was sent to the Outlands by Clow himself!" 

"Because the feral dragons needed minding and we were low on forces! Not because we wished for your absence."

"So I am allowed to return, now?" 

"You could have declined the assignment from the start." 

The blonde buries his head in his hands and his shoulders are shaking ever so slightly. At first Yue thinks he might be laughing at the misunderstanding, but soon it's clear he's crying. He knows this might be a point where one might offer physical comfort, consolation, but he's never been particularly good at either of those things. A brief press of his beak against Fai's forearm is the best he's going to get.

"You think this some sort of penance." 

"Do I not deserve it?" 

Yue knocks him back with a foot. It's not particularly gentle, but then again, Yue doesn't care. What's important is that he can see Fai's face, because he _needs_ him to understand this. 

"Celes was not your fault, Fai." The blonde's breath is shaky but he holds Yue's fierce gaze. "Your failure to control Ashura was our miscalculation, not your short coming."

"But-"

"No!" 

There was much destruction on the day the northern humans were finally driven to violence, but none had lost more than Fai. The thought that he'd spent so many years thinking it his own fault...

Thinking himself unwanted by what was left of his family...

Yue did not relish the task of relaying this revelation to Clow. His master's sleepless nights always passed so slowly. 

"Come home with me, Fai." 

"No." 

"You are angry with us?"

Fai tried to make any kind of sense out of what what happening in his mind. There was about every emotion it was possible to have, so yes, anger was one of them. But so was sadness. Relief. Joy. And love. That rock steady love for Clow that had acted as ballast through the storms of his life. 

  
"It's not that either. Just... I can't. I don't want to."  

"Don't be foolish, Fai. I can't leave you alone here. You will come home, and we will help-"

All at once Yue falls silent, looking off into the brush and standing protectively over Fai's still sitting form.

Kurogane, emerges crashing through the trees, looking wild and angry. 

Before anything even happens, Fai knows this will not end well. The dragon has just seen him dragged from the sky. Some of his feathers, as expected after a fall like that, still litter the clearing floor. And Yue stands above him, Fai not in his grasp, but clearly claimed and dangerously close to talons and beak. Kurogane makes the mistake of charging and Yue does not hesitate to incapacitate him. Where Fai has always done something of play fighting with Kurogane, the silver phoenix wastes no time on such things. His talons dig in between the scales of his back and neck and his beak, strong and diamond sharp, clamp down warningly around the root of the dragon's right wing.   
  
Fai knows it to be no empty threat. 

He screeches loud and piercing. It's something that, embarrassingly, has become a sort of safeword between them when Kurogane forgets himself or his strength during their more intimate encounters. But it works, and for that Fai is grateful. Kurogane freezes, claw raised. 

"Wait! Don't hurt him! He's harmless!" 

Yue takes his beak away to speak and Fai lets out a tight breath.

"Harmless? He was going to attack me!" 

"I know, but he thought you had hurt me."

"Why should he care if I-" All at once Yue grasps the situation. He jumps off of Kurogane as if he's suddenly realized he is made of fish gut. "Him!? This is why you've abandoned your mission?"

Despite the last few moments of stunned silence, Kurogane rallies. " _He_ is standing right here." His eyes narrow as he works his wing, checking for injury and finding none beyond a strain. "And he can hear you."


	7. Thicker than Water

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The blood of the covenant...

Fai opens his eyes under the water, watching bubbles from the thermal vent ascend. As his breath runs out he follows them, tilting his head back as he breaks the surface. There is a touch of sulfur to the air, but the caustic has always held an allure for those of his species. Yue watches from where he sits on the edge, his feet in the pool as his fingers work through long silver hair. The spring flows past them towards a drop off and the burbling sound of the small waterfall it creates plays in the background of their conversation. 

Fai runs his hands over his hair, forcing a little of the water away and the strands out of his eyes. "We could visit my city later today if you wanted. It's small but they've got some amazing artisans. I know how Clow likes gifts." A single stroke brings Fai close enough to hold the edge where bright minerals from deep in the earth now encrust the stone. "You could dispel your wings and mask your eyes so we'd blend in at the markets." 

Yue frowns. Fai tries again.  

"Or I have a robe with a cape and cowl you could wear instead. It would hide your features if you don't feel like transforming fully."

The frown grows to outright distaste. 

Fai laughs a little nervously. "Or you could go as is and out me as a phoenix to the entire village." He raises his eyebrows. "Come on, work with me here, yeah?" 

"'My' city?" Yue asks, not looking up from a tangle in his hair. "Don't you mean 'his'?" 

Oh. Fai had been afraid of this. "I live here as much as Kurogane does." 

"Yes, and in his lair no less. What an accommodating host." Yue's fingers slip apart as the knot loosens and falls away. "Are you thanking him perhaps? Is that why you wear his chains? Roll in his gold?" 

He can't help but be a little stung by the words. For a moment he retreats back into the pool, hot water coming up to the bridge of his nose. They hadn't cared when he'd done things like this for the purpose of culling. Was it really so terrible that he do it now for his own enjoyment? Still, Yue's face as he'd eyed the gold plated feathers he'd knocked loose after their fight... Fai pulls himself back up, water dripping down his chin and neck. "I did not think you would see that." 

"Obviously." 

Fai doesn't know what to say to that. He has no excuse. None that Yue would find satisfying, anyway. 

"I worry for you. You understand that, right? There are so many we could bond you with. Those with land, power. Your pairing could _mean_ something." 

"Like how it meant something to the people of Celes?" 

Yue's hands finally fall away, leaving the long hair to drape as it will over his shoulder and down into his lap. "Is that what this is about? Seeking the smallest territory possible? So you find a feral with a single mountain range to his name?" Yue catches his chin and Fai does not resist as he is pulled closer, looking up into silver eyes. "You weren't made to hide like this, Fai. You were made for greatness. I know you feel-"

"Mountain." Fai interrupts. "Just this mountain." 

Yue winces, a thumb coming up to run along his jaw. "Fai, I beg of you; Please don't waste your time on this dragon." 

"Do I not have it in excess? Why shouldn't I waste my time?"

"But it's not just your time you are giving him, is it?" 

At that, Fai pulls away. It's too raw. They aren't bonded. No pair is without Clow's blessing. No, this is... In Yue's eyes it must be little more than playing house. 

He does not begrudge Fai's retreat. "Can you just do me one favor, Fai? Can you please stop wearing the chains?" 

"The chains?"

It wasn't often he saw Yue looking uncomfortable. 

"It is obscene." 

But this turn in the conversation has left Fai off balance. "But... I have seen you wear them more times than I can count. Even to court!" There was a hushed rumor about the origin of the delicate body chains Fai has started to favor, and Yue was very much implicated.  

"Yes. For and with Clow, to whom I am bonded. To wear evidence of your submission outside of this union is unspeakably vulgar. I know you are resentful of us right now, but I cannot-" 

"Wait! Stop. Stop..." Fai wins his silence with a bewildered look. "Yue, It's just jewelry." 

But he raises a disbelieving eyebrow. 

"Isn't it?" Fai asks, more and more unsure of himself.

"So you've never...?"

Fai's eyes grow wide. "Never what?" 

But Yue doesn't answer. Just lets out a relieved sigh. Looking out at the ocean, he even manages a small smile. "I suppose there are small mercies." 

Fai is indignant and there is something a little nostalgic in the argument. "Never what? You have to tell me! It's a sex thing, isn't it?" 

Silver eyes simply flash at him, mouth curling into a reserved grin. "Perhaps I'll tell you when you're older." 

"Yue!" Driven to frustration, Fai splashes him, but he blocks the water with a wing and laughs. 

 

* * *

 

 

"Fai, are you still awake?" 

The caves don't ever really get dark, lit as they are by magma flows, but there is a softness to the light where Fai lays against Kurogane's foreankle, sheltered by the arch of a dark and leathery wing. The dragon's head is tucked underneath with him. Again, 'quiet' is a tall order for something so giant, but he does speak in gentle tones. 

The blonde shifts but does not open his eyes. "I am now." 

"Sorry." 

"It is alright." 

"Fai, who is Yue?"

The blonde turns to his side facing Kurogane and tucking an arm to support his head. The other traces draconian skin. "One of the first phoenixes. Consort to Clow. Sort of my boss."

"You call him 'Brother'." 

Fai blinks at him, then looks down to his own hand against Kurogane's skin. This is what he gets for pairing with an Outlands dragon. 

"Every phoenix is my brother. We are each a creation of Clow's and in this way, we are family."

Kurogane is predictably nonplussed. "He  _created_ you?" 

"He is a very _powerful_ dragon." 

He wishes he could leave that be, but the silence sucks like a void. When he musters the will to look up, Fai can see the uncertainty in his dragon's brow.

"Are you real?"

The blonde rolls onto his stomach. "Do I feel real, Kurgy?" 

A snout eases up to him, achingly gentle. His hand pets lovingly across the arch of the scaled nose.

"Yes." 

Fai holds Kurogane's face in both hands and lays a chaste kiss to apex of his snout. For a moment they are quiet. 

"Why do you speak of Yue as if he isn't there?" 

To this the blonde frowns slightly and tilts his head. "When have I done that?"

Kurogane shrugs a shoulder slightly. He paraphrases overheard conversations between the two birds. "'Yue would have liked the view.' 'This color reminds me of Yue.' You both do it."

Fai stills. "Do you mean 'Yuui'?" 

"Yes, Yue." 

"No..." Fai pushes lightly at the wing that surrounds them and Kurogane lifts it away to tuck against his back. The blonde sits up. There is something off about his posture. "'Yuui', not 'Yue'." 

Ever since the second phoenix has arrived, Fai's speech has been changing slightly, vowels slipping and consonants blurring a little. Soon Fai had sounded just the same as their guest. Kurogane didn't mind it, but this was a little too far. 

"You just said the same thing." 

Fai chuckles at him. "No, I didn't. Your ears are just lazy. Try it: Yue. Yuui." 

There is just _barely_ a perceivable difference. More feeling than anything else. 

"Yue. Yue." 

Fai waves him away. "Your tongue is lazy, too."

Kurogane shifts, pulling him closer, rubbing his snout against the blonde's lower abdomen like he knows he likes. "Who has a lazy tongue?" 

"You do!" Fai maintains, pushing him away with a smiling protest and Kurogane lets him. The moment of tension, not quite excitement but a memory of it, hangs uncertainly, then eases away as Fai sighs. 

"So, who is he?" Kurogane asks once the silence has settled once more. Still, he doesn't trust himself to get the name right. "The other one." 

"My brother."

The dragon waits a moment trying to make sense of this. "Another phoenix?"

"No. I mean, _yes_ , but _actually_ my brother." Fai frowned. "Well, sort of. We were identical."

"Twins?" Kurogane hazards. 

Fai shakes his head once like he's not really sure. "The same phoenix, twice created." 

"But... I mean, you weren't the same person. Surely you had differences."

Fai's hand runs along his skin, fidgeting with the edges of scales. "No one could tell us apart. We each answered to both names. It felt like being the same person." 

Kurogane tries to imagine having a double of Fai. He can't quite fathom it. Rolling onto his side, he frees a hand, pulling Fai to sit in the crook of an elbow while he draws the back of his other fore foot comfortingly up his side. "And how long ago did he...?"

Fai turns into the touch, wraps a hand around one of his digits. "Long enough. I can think of him and smile now." 

"Good." 

But it's a little too quick. A little too dismissive. Fai starts to frown. 

"Sorry." Kurogane immediately amends. "I don't know..." 

But Fai nods, because he does. Excepting those lucky enough to pair with a phoenix, a dragon will for preference hatch, live and die in solitude. How could he possibly understand? 

"It's alright." Fai says, hugging his ankle tight. "I know what you mean." 


	8. Nine Yards

Days flow into weeks, flow into months. Soon an entire year has passed. Winter is mild in their jungle home, more rain than anything else, but like any phoenix, Fai feels the seasons change like a metronome. Yue visits a few more times. When it becomes clear that Kurogane is not a phase, he begins to apply pressure and Fai starts to get nervous, knowing what must be done.

"Do you know what today is?" Fai asks one morning as he sits under the shelter of his dragon's wing. He grooms the spot just behind Kurogane's jaw with a shining beak. It is already immaculate, but Kurogane enjoys the feeling and Fai enjoys Kurogane's enjoyment. 

"Every day is today." He says a little drowsily.

Fai groans internally. How draconian. He usually hears it put more eloquently, but they all eventually start to philosophize like this.  

But no, that's not what he's getting at. 

"It's been a year since I first came to you." 

"Has it?" Kurogane says it mildly, opening crimson eyes and picking up his head. 

Fai tilts his chin to the side a little to look at him. "Do you remember?" Then he mirrors Kurogane's new posture, but keeps his beak down demurely. "I walked to your cave in silk and holy oil. Kneeled at your feet. Gave myself in offering." As he speaks he runs the crown of his head down Kurogane's neck, ending in a submissive bow at his forefeet. 

Red eyes watch him carefully. Kurogane's voice rumbles in a rich contrast to Fai's own lighter tones. "All of it lies of course, because then you tried to kill me." 

Fai can't help the grin that splits his beak. He obviously wasn't trying very _hard_. Concealed by a leathery wing, a talon finds a claw and squeezes a little. "Kurgy you're ruining the mood." 

"Just setting some facts straight." 

"Hush!"

The dragon bows his head a little sarcastically. "Sorry. You were saying?"

"I was saying..." Fai hesitates. "I think it might be time I was given to you... officially."

Kurogane shifts, head tilting and claws tensing against the stone floor a little. That sounds... It sounds right. More than that, it speaks to something very carnal and wanting that grows suddenly within him. He just... has no idea what it actually entails. "Like a rite of sacrifice?" 

It has gone unsaid between them that their first meeting obviously did not count as such. 

Fai is fidgeting and has gone quiet. Kurogane pulls him close with the wing draped over the phoenix's body. "Fai?" He prompts again. 

"Like a bonding."

The bird looks at him shyly as he says it and Kurogane wants nothing more than to hold him tighter until they are one impossible being. "Fai..." He says, a little lost in wonder.

He's elated, but also confused. "Are we not already?" 

"No." Fai smiles that particular smile that means Kurogane's endearing naivete has started to drift into the frustrating. But that eases away as his voice drops, secret and tender between them. "We're paired. A bonding is ceremonial. Public. For life."

Kurogane claims Fai in little ways everyday, and he knows the phoenix does the same. There's really nothing more that he wants than to take it further. To show the world what he has won. "Yes! I want this. I wish to bond with you. What do we do?" 

Fai smiles, eyes almost sparkling, even in the low light of their home. "It's simple really. The head priest will preside as I swear my service to you."

A forefoot burrows under Fai's wing and he lets Kurogane drag light claws sweetly over this defenseless part of him where the skin is thin and sensitive. He can feel the eagerness in the dragon's touch, but Fai doesn't invite anything more for the moment and Kurogane has learned not to rush him.

So the dragon remains in this place of warm anticipation, pacing himself with idle conversation. "Do you think she would be brave enough? The humans tend to keep their distance." At Kurogane's command really. He'd have to make an exception.

"No, 'him'. _My_ head priest. Back in Clow's country." 

An uncomfortable silence descends. The claws pull away. 

"Why should I go to Clow's court to bond with you? He holds no authority here." 

Fai resettles his wing but presses closer to his dragon. "Because in bonding to me, in a way you bond to Clow. I am his creation after all." Fai is trying every caress he knows, nibbling every sweet spot, but the dragon remains resolute and annoyingly undistracted. 

Kurogane catches his cheek against Fai's and pulls back, stilling them both. He speaks from barely a foot away, "I do not wish to be bound to your master, I wish to be bound to you." 

"There will always be a part of him inside me." 

A few moments pass, then Kurogane's eyes widen. "Is this his strategy? He sends you out to seduce us, then he controls the phoenix who controls the dragon who controls the land?"  

At this point Fai is very much pouting. "I just want you to meet my family." 

"I will not be subservient to him." 

"No one is asking you to be."

Yet.

* * *

Fai's fingers are so cold that they've gone numb, and really he should do something about that, but it's been so long. Maybe he'll wait until the novelty of it has worn off.

"What is that?" 

They've been flying since sunrise and still they're not even a quarter of the way to Fai's home. 

He follows where Kurogane is looking: an apparently nondescript mountain top that has appeared as the cloud cover starts to dissipate.

"Have you never seen snow before?" 

"Snow?" 

It's been a long day and Fai's body is starting to get sore, especially where his flints sit stiff against his skin, but this turns things right around. His hands pat excitedly at the back of Kurogane's head.

"You have to land! Let me show you!" 


	9. Blind Eye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone that has been leaving feedback and posting your theories! <3 You make this verse so fun to work on. ^u^

"Is your capital always this big? Or this loud?" Kurogane grouses. "How am I supposed to tell where to land?" 

Fai can only assume he doesn't mean 'loud' in the literal sense. They can barely hear each other in the wind, let alone noise from the ground, but the streets are full of light and commotion, even at this late hour. 

"Yes, and always growing. No, they're celebrating. And you'll know it when you see it." 

"Celebrating what?" 

Fai squeezes a little with his knees, a mid-flight equivalent of bumping shoulders. "Us, silly." 

The wind eases up a little as Kurogane slows down, scanning the hills a valleys for some sort of signal. The capital is giant, but you can only ever really appreciate that from the air. From the ground the terrain is just too mountainous to see more than a neighborhood or two at a time. 

"Us?"

Fai lets his grip relax and starts to set flyaway hairs back in order. "Of course. One of Clow's flock is to be bonded. With every union, peace is assured with another land. What a happy occasion for the kingdom ." 

  
"Because they were about to go to war with my single mountain?"

"You should probably stop bringing that up so much while we're here." 

The next crest of land has Kurogane sure he's found what he's been looking for. An entire face of a valley wall stands not dark, but certainly more subdued than the public streets. A few towering buildings stand each at a distance to each other. At the top most and biggest, a bright, seemingly impossible flame shoots into the sky without wavering. When he approaches and Fai doesn't stop him, he assumes he's chosen correctly. 

They land a little heavily, Kuorgane too tired for finesse. If this is the castle, it's not as big as he was expecting. 

He can feel his companion easing down from his shoulder, probably just as sore for different reasons as a voice calls. 

"Fai! Greetings! We are most honored and joyful for your return." 

The young man bows, so it is a little unexpected when Fai pulls him up and into a tight hug. 

"Watanuki! It is so nice to see you, again! Please, meet Kurogane." 

They both turn to him. Fai with pride on his face and Watanuki with a polite smile and inclination of the head. "A heartfelt welcome to our lands, Dragon of Earth." 

"Dragon of what?" 

Fai signals Watanuki to continue with his work as they speak. "Dragon of Earth. It's your title. At least until the ceremony. Then you are a Dragon of Heaven." 

"Because then I'll be bonded to you?"

"Yes." 

"That seems a little..." But Kurogane trails off as Fai strips to the waist and Watanuki spreads oil between his hands. "Um." 

Watanuki speaks softly, this time just to Fai, though his voice still carries. "Sorry about the chill. Tomorrow should be warmer." 

"Not your fault." Fai says, going out of his way to be gracious and reassuring. "It's not like you control the weather." He turns his back to Watanuki who spreads his hands over his shoulders then down his scapula."

"The torch." Watanuki requests. 

His assistant, a quiet man seeming a little older steps forward holding out a wooden length, the end burning softly but strongly. 

"Why are you using a torch? If you need fire I can make it, Fai." 

"Yes," The phoenix concedes. "But it's tradition I'm afraid." That and the flame is sourced from Clow himself. Fai does his best to look like he is suffering as Watanuki touches it to his back, but that sigh is just a little to luxuriant to fool anyone. 

Kurogane looks away with a slight frown. The assistant keeps staring at him, annoyingly unawed. "Who are you?" 

"Doumeki." He answers in a monotone. As Watanuki shoots him a look, he tacks on Kurogane's title. "Dragon of Earth."

"And what do you do?" 

"I'm the torch barer." An awkward silence stretches. "I bare the torch." 

They are saved from a second attempt at conversation as fire flares at Fai's back. Kurogane had seen Fai's wings of flame roll down his back many a time, but he's never seen him let them burn out and remain while the rest of his body stays human. Watanuki steps out of the way as Fai shakes ash and embers out of his wings, the same blue iridescent color as always, but much smaller than his bird form. Still, they reach down below the curve of his knees when he tucks them close against his back. 

"Fai?" Kurogane does nothing to mask the shock in his voice. 

"We've got an agreement with the humans here in the kingdom. They accept our rule and in return we do not mask our presence. It makes them less nervous when they can see us coming." 

"So you bow to the paranoia of your subjugates?" It is argument for the sake of argument because the only other thing happening right now in his mind is an incoherent mess of _Fai_ and _wings_ and he isn't about to walk into that minefield of embarrassment. Not with witnesses around. There is also the utterly cruel fact that he hadn't used Kurogane's flame to do it and the jealousy eats at him. 

But Fai is by now an expert at reading his charge. The harsh words are very much bellayed by the needy tinge to that crimson gaze. "That kind of rule might work when you only have a few dozen thousand humans to keep track of. You have to make a few compromises when that number reaches the millions. Besides," Fai fluffs his feathers a little and preens with fingertips at where the arch of a wing sits at his shoulder. "Don't you find it beautiful?" 

Kurogane is and will always be a willing victim to Fai's avian wiles. "I do." 

The pair are somewhat interrupted as Watanuki whines a little. When they both look to him, he covers his mouth, like he hadn't realized he'd made a noise. "Sorry! Don't mind me. It's just kind of adorable. If this is you tired from flight, I don't even want to know what you're going to be like when the big day comes. You're going to make me cry, aren't you Fai?"

Fai looks away but not before one lingering gaze full of promise for his dragon.

"But what about you, Watanuki? Your assistant seems awfully familiar. Has Clow perhaps granted your wish?"

He immediately looks a little guarded. "Of course not, Fai. It's merely the same family line. You know how weary the alliance is of my existence. How would they react to a second?" 

"Not well, I'd imagine. Is that why you opted for reincarnation?" 

Watanuki's smile grows hard and his eyes narrow. 

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean, Fai." 

But the phoenix only smiles a little slyly. Wantanuki can say what he wants, but Fai has seen Doumeki's face before. Unlike Watanuki who always stays the impossible same, this second human seems if anything younger than the last time Fai left. "What on earth did you have to do to convince Clow?" 

But he is ignored with an aggressive friendliness. 

"Look at how high the Moon climbs! I'd best let you two get settled. We'll be over to move you to the main court tomorrow." 

Kurogane, not particularly interested in the magical politics of an awkward stick holder, finds this new subject to be far more pertinent. "Can we not just go there now?"

Fai is quick to answer him, finally easing off Watanuki and his secrets. "You wouldn't want to. Life in the court is so formal. Everything is such a process. For tonight let's just rest here and recover." 

Then the human who may or may not be a reincarnation depending on who is asking and why speaks up. "That and you're in quarantine." 

Kurogane is pretty immediately pissed off. "What! Why?" 

"In case you're sick." 

"You think I brought diseases with me?"

Fai lays a hand on his shoulder, appealing for peace. "No, Kurgy, It's a standard practice. Please, just humor it? And honestly court is such a hassle. I'm tired. Can we just...? " Big blue eyes look up at him, wincing like he's in pain but trying to hide it. It's a ruse. Kurogane knows it's a ruse because Fai has used it on him before. But instinct is just too strong. 

"Fine." He groans. 

Even with the concession, it still takes them a least another hour to see Watanuki and his assistant off. There are great cavernous rooms built of stone and iron in their guest house, but they're still not the same as actual caverns. In the end they feel most comfortable in the basement, sleeping on solid stone, curled around each other and surrounded by the undying light of magical flames. 

 

* * *

 

 The next morning Kurogane wakes alone. With a mounting unease he ascends through the guest quarters, but he finds Fai alone and unhurt, perching on the edge of a balcony as the sun rises over the city. In reality the buildings stretch for miles in each direction, surrounding the mountain, but from here there is a view of this particularly beautiful valley floor and it feels complete. 

Fai turns to offer him a smile, but does not move from where he balances on the stone work. "Sleep well?"   
  
"Well enough." He comes to Fai's side, though his eyes are more for the blonde. "You like the view?" 

Fai smiles wide. "It is home. I have missed it." 

Kurogane doesn't want to say it, but he's felt as if in a cage since they landed. There is a chill and lifelessness to Clow's capital that simply does not suit his nature. There are humans in abundance to be sure, but the stone and the mountain lie still beneath his feet and it is an ever present wrongness in the back of his mind. He'd suffered a sudden fear last night, that Fai might feel a similar unease in his volatile lair of magma and smoke. He'd like to think Fai would have told him if he were distressed, but while the phoenix can complain so readily about some subjects, he is silent about others.

"You could stay." Kurogane offers.

Even with the dragon's gathering concern, Fai's good mood seems untouchable. "Getting cold feet, Kurgy?" He asks with a quirk to his lips. 

"Of course not. But I don't want to take you from where you belong."

Fai makes that face like he's tasted something sour. Like he'd said, on some subjects, Fai is very ready to complain.

Kurogane amends his statement, "I mean from where you want to be." 

Appeased, Fai then turns to him, wing folding back as he reaches out a hand so fingertips brush against the scales of his cheek. "I just want to be with you."

Kurogane nuzzles into the touch and Fai presses close.   
  
"Wherever that might be." 

The words pull at Kurogane's lungs and he wants to please Fai. Take him in hand and cherish this beautiful creature of fire and feather and talon that has fallen into his life. To show his gratitude and hear Fai's soft curses. His softer coos. 

And he would if this were their jungle. But...

"We're being watched." 

"So you've noticed." 

Even if they had not yet approached, Kurogane could spot dozens of eyes in the forest at the edge of their lawns. 

"Spies?" 

Fai drops his hand and looked back out at them with a laugh. "They're probably fans." 

"Fans?" 

But instead of explaining, Fai simply waves to them. They all appear a little more from hiding. A few wave back. One yells wordless greeting but is immediately shushed by the others. 

Fai slips off the edge of the building and though Kurogane has stopped giving in to the reflex to try and catch him, there is still that moment of irrational panic that twists through his stomachs. With two flaps of wings Fai flutters down to a graceful landing on short green grass. It can't be natural. Those wings weren't made for that body, but Fai makes it look effortless. Kurogane follows, big enough that he can simply scale the masonry, stepping form balcony to roof to staircase. 

"Where are you going?"

"To say hello of course!" 

Kurogane says nothing to this but hangs back as Fai closes the distance. It's a short walk, but still Kurogane does not like the proximity. He loses the soft conversation to the breeze, but he watches intently. A crowd starts to gather, a dozen, then some fifty, all carefully halting where short grass becomes forest floor. They cheer for a while as Fai waves, then addresses them briefly. There comes a point when Fai kneels down right on the edge of the lawn, opposite a child. When they hold their hand up, flat against seemingly empty space, a golden spark travels out along a plane that runs straight up from the boundary of the grounds. Suddenly it makes sense why the humans have organized so neatly and come no further. The sparks spook a few of the onlookers as they burn radially out, but the child shows no evidence of pain or discomfort. 

The crowd watches as Fai holds out two fingers, almost touching their palm through an impossibly thin magical barrier. 

The sound doesn't carry, but Kurogane sees Fai's head tips up to speak to the child's presumed father. The man wipes a tear but the smile on his face is beaming. 

After a time, the crowd's focus shifts to himself. Fai stands, delivers some line to them, and of all things they laugh. Nothing derisive or cruel, but it does not sit easy in Kurogane's hearing.   
  
After a brief look shared with Fai, he returns to their temporary home-

'Holding cell' a thought whispers at the back of Kurogane's mind.   
  
\- and beds down in the basement where if nothing else there is the solidness of stone beneath him. 

He'd felt as if in a cage, and he'd been right.

Kurogane waits patiently for whatever is to come next, but he vows that from now on, he'll trust his instincts. 


	10. Both Worlds

It turns out that Clow's 'castle' is not one building, but almost a small city of its own, nestled into the center of the capital at its highest peak. Newer, more ornate buildings surround the outer border, and the more ancient stand humbly, yet more revered closer to the center. At first Kurogane is surprised there is no wall surrounding them, but then, Clow has no need for physical barriers. As they approach the center of the compound, they come to a huge structure, part castle, part artificial cavern, part hall of worship. It is in the entry chambers to the construction that they now stand, alone beyond an attendant or two that wait unobtrusively at the edges of the room. Harmonic chanting already carries down the hall they must walk. 

Fai fusses with his hair a little where the flight over had knocked it loose, visibly nervous. Then he checks on Kurogane, but he comes no closer and offers no soothing touch. His attention is basically all he can give him.

Fai had warned him that things would be different here. Any place with more than one dragon gathered was a possible invitation for violence. Kurogane had understood this without need for explanation. In his life, he'd had to fend off the occasional interloper and had felt just how strong the instinct to drive competitors away had been. The Allied Dragons are mature, proven to be able to drown out the compulsion, but still it is best to avoid things that might be perceived as aggressive or disrespectful, such as being overly intimate with your respective dragon or phoenix, especially before the bonding is even official. Theirs is a careful truce, built on seniority, mutual benefit and tradition. 

"Ready, Kuropu?" 

The dragon bristles to hear Fai's pet name in such an imposing place. He can already smell the other dragons and he hates it. 

"Kurogane" He corrects as he stares down the hall.

There is a pure white length of fabric rolled out over the cut stone of the corridor floor. Rainbows of light splash chaotically across it from the East. 

Fai seems to take that as answer enough and begins their entrance, head held high, posture straight, hands folded neatly at the small of his back, almost completely hidden by iridescent blue wings. Kurogane follows silently, his dusty foot prints left unknowingly behind. 

This morning he'd watched his phoenix dress carefully in garments he'd never seen before. They were white and for once close fitting, long sleeved and high necked. Over this, two separate cloaks were laid, each not quite closing, creating different layers to the ensemble, but all of the same bright, pure hue. Any exposed fabric was covered in embroidery done in an almost similar colored silver thread. In the shade it faded into nothingness, but once they'd stepped into the sun, the light traced the along the designs as if they were being drawn upon his body with every movement. It was nothing close to what he'd ever seen Fai dress himself in, when he bothered dressing at all. To his eye, it looked stiff, unnatural. But Fai still managed to move in it like it was a second skin. He'd even worn shoes. 

Which is something Kurogane is marveling at as those feet slow to a stop. He does the same and in silence follows the line of his phoenix's back and neck to find Fai looking up towards the light.  This is what had been throwing the color onto the ground. The rest of the stained glass windows had been abstract designs, more randomly composed than anything else, but from this window on they are portraits, and this window in particular-

"Is that you?" 

Fai doesn't move from where he is staring up at it. In the glass, his own face is set in gracefully blowing hair a bit longer than how he currently wears it. A clear stone sits at his sternum but it throws light like a rainbow. The depiction of his bird form stands in the background, wings extended to either side. Floating between his hands is a broad but elegant, amber colored dragon, rearing fiercely at the viewer. It doesn't feel right under the soft, loving expression on the phoenix's face. 

"My brother." Fai eventually says, voice and thoughts a million miles away. "And Ashura. I'd almost forgotten. I'd..." Fai swallows and glances back, small smile on his face. "This is the memorial hall." He looks back up at the stained glass, the dappled blue light of Yuui's feathers falling across his face and shoulder. "They did a beautiful job, don't you think?" 

Kurogane doesn't speak but makes a low noise of agreement. 

With one last look, Fai starts to move on. It takes Kurogane an extra few moments before he can tear his eyes away and follow suit. 

There are more stained glass portraits to pass. A distressing number of them. At the base of every throat sits the same clear gem that casts a rainbow shadow. Fai wears each obituary as he walks into their light and the morning sun casts their many colors across his skin and clothing. He seems unafraid, but to Kurogane the message could not be any clearer. 

Careful how you tread, or your phoenix might be next. 

* * *

There is a calm that falls over Fai as he moves down the corridor. First his brother, then the others look down on him as he passes. It's not just the light but the gentle warmth of the sun that falls across his cheek and shoulder. Some of these fallen he had known since his first days. Others he had heard of only from legend. A diamond from the lair of Clow sits nestled in each portrait, just as the clasp of his garment sits heavy at his own sternum. They are the same. They are one. They are complete. Even in death, his brothers and sisters attend. The feeling lends him courage as he steps out of the hall and into the cavernous room beyond. 

For the first time in far too many years, Fai Flourite, Phoenix of Clow, stands in the court of his master. He tries to keep his expression neutral, as he knows he should, as it befitting his lineage of feather and flame, but it's just too much. 

They are singing his song. 

He gazes up in wonder at the vaulted ceiling where the chanting voices of the monks and nuns reverberate and flow back down around him. 

There is a second song of course. One that plays in perfect partner to his own. No one sings it today, but he can still hear an ancient echo of it in his own mind and it fills him with peace.

His eyes drop back to the final stretch of fabric covered, as the whole room is, in hints of the bleeding colors that the cut diamonds of the windows pull from the pure sunlight. He takes a deep breath and begins to walk again. 

To either side of the aisle are humans in neat rows and ornate clothing. What ever royalty or ruler that currently runs the city must surely be somewhere in this mix. Their faces and fashions are ever changing, but that look of shock and awe is always the same. Once he passes them, there are of course the allied dragons. Not all of them naturally; most are busy in their own lands seeing to their own affairs, but a good number have come to witness the union. Fai knows them all either by memory or reputation care of the updates Yue brings about court with every visit. Most stand alone, but a lucky few have their own phoenixes standing solemnly at their shoulders. 

They too are dressed like Fai, in an ornate and formal white, while wings of diverse color and shape are folded at their backs. His heart swells as he catches a few choice gazes and receives small acknowledgements in return. A wink. A slight smile. A minuscule nod. 

Though he longs to go to them, there is also a comfort to this restraint and strict tradition. The songs, the room, the clothing... It's all the same as his first days in the palace as a fledgling. The centuries might slip away, but here at least there is something to come back to, unchanging and familiar.

There on the dais stands Yue, as serious and fierce as ever where he stands along with the other consorts of Clow. 

And then there is Clow himself. 

His slender form and blue-purple hue. The golden accents running down his spine and along the crest of his wings. The soft gray of his eyes. There is a pull that Fai feels. A part of his soul that rejoices to be so close to it's creator. 

It is protocol to kneel before him, but Fai hardly needs the direction, feeling compelled to do it anyway. 

"My Master." He greats as he bends to his knees, hands before him on the ground as he bows. His wings fall to the sides, spreading low and submissive around him. 

"Stand, my child." 

Fai's head comes up first, almost like he doesn't believe or can't understand the command. But then he does, doing nothing to hide the continuing reverence in his expression. 

"It brings me joy to see you again, Fai Flourite. I welcome you back to the flock." 

The warmth fills his chest and he almost wants to cry from relief. But he can't. Not here. Not in court. Not while he is being 'Fai Flourite, Phoenix of Clow' in front of all these spectators.

After he had spent so much time rehearsing Kurogane for this meeting, it is he himself that misses the cue.

But Clow is there to prompt him. "Have you brought a companion, my Hatchling?" 

Jolted back into focus, Fai continues with the script. 

He holds out a hand, gesturing back to Kurogane. "I present to this court and all of the alliance-" Here Fai looks back and almost stumbles on his words, because Kurogane is looking at him like he wants to pounce. There is an obvious jealousy radiating off of his dragon. An palpable hunger to claim. 

Fai's breath catches.

It's going to be a Hell of a bonding night. 

Exciting as that thought might be, right now he needs his dragon to calm down. "I present Kurogane, Dragon of Earth, Ruler of the Daidouji line." He shoots a warning gaze that still manages to be sympathetic, blue eyes locking with crimson, even as he addresses the assembly. "He is a most noble dragon, fierce and intelligent. I ask you to give me to him in loyalty and servitude and in doing so, proclaim him a Dragon of Heaven." 

Pinned under Fai's stare, Kurogane's dissatisfaction quiets, as if they are once again the only two in the room. Clow speaks, but somehow it doesn't feel intrusive. 

"You wish to be bonded to him?"

"I do." Fai answers, eyes more full of meaning than the words could ever hope to be.

Kurogane blinks first, gaze falling to his own feet, then skittering over the assembly as he wrangles his expression into something more neutral. 

Only then does the phoenix look away from his chosen. 

Clow's voice rises as he makes the proclamation. "Then let it be so! On the day of the equinox, Fai Flourite, Phoenix of Clow, and Kurogane, Dragon of Earth, shall be bonded under the eye of The Alliance and with its blessing."

He barely finishes speaking before a cheer raises and crashes through the hall.  


	11. From Scratch

With its dark green color and sharp trees, this jungle- No, 'forest', is entirely wrong. Still if Kurogane faces in the right direction, he can almost pretend he's not in the middle of a city surrounded on every side with human artifice. 

If only Clow would stop talking to him. 

"And the obsidian, it doesn't just chip to shards?" 

He wishes Fai hadn't gone into so much detail about their lair. There is only so long he can pretend to care about Clow's interest in his decorations. 

"My people have long had special techniques to shape obsidian." 

"So it must be a valuable trade good." 

He doesn't care to know, so it's Fai that takes over his end of the conversation, "No, not particularly." 

"Why on earth not?" 

"I believe pieces are often too fragile for transport." 

"Interesting. And the obsidian itself, is there a large supply of it?" 

"As long as the magma still flows, there will be more." 

 Clow nods like any of this is of consequence. "How lucky to live in a volcanic cavern." 

"And what form is your lair?" Kurogane asks, eager to change the subject.

Fai walks between them carrying a small girl, Chi, on his hip. Her dove wings flutter and bounce a little as they descend. She is Clow's newest creation, not yet even old enough to speak, but her eyes are bright as she clutches to the fabric of his robes. In kind, Fai holds her like the precious cargo she is.

There is so much about Clow that is strange. He'd looked so imposing up on the dais during the homecoming ceremony, but here as they walk shoulder to shoulder, Kurogane is easily the larger of the two. And not once has Clow postured his dominance. He is the least draconian dragon Kurogane has ever encountered in his (admittedly limited) experience. 

"There is a system of geodes, deep under this mountain." Clow answers. 

"Quartz?"

"Diamond"

Kurogane almost trips over his own feet but the other two are polite enough not to acknowledge it. Chi however, giggles. 

"They're just rocks." Clow adds, as though any amount of modestly could make that true. 

The urge to tackle Clow and rip out his throat rises in him again, but when he looks over Fai and Chi smile at him serenely and he swallows it back down. 

"Honestly if anything, it's a pain. Dust that can cut you? It's not the luxury you're probably imagining." 

This line of conversation is not helping his urge to swat at him.

 Mercifully they reach the clearing and it dies away on it's own. Fai sets Chi down and she wanders delightedly through the wild flowers while he follows closely behind. 

"What makes her so special?" Kurogane asks as they both find positions to sit in as they wait. 

Clow doesn't even have to think about it. "They're all special. All unique." He smiles as he watches his creations play. 

"No, I mean Yuuko." 

"Ah! Well," He says, starting to watch the sky instead. "You never really forget your first, do you?" 

Kurogane isn't entirely sure he can agree because had her hair been black or brown? And her eyes were... green? Maybe?

"I didn't know what I was doing when I created her." Clow continues. "I just poured in my power and my hope.My intentions and ambitions. I was hoping for an ally, but what I got was a wild card. A super-charged wild card. I love her for it, but it did make her impossible to control." He turns back to Kurogane. "I think I rather over-corrected with Yue. I'm still trying to hit that balance. It's getting better."

Kurogane has been waiting to broach this topic since he first learned who Clow was, but now that he's here and it's happening, he almost wishes not to know. "What make you think that?" He asks.

"You're here, aren't you? 

Kurogane doesn't want to follow that line of reasoning too closely. "So she just goes where she wants and does what she pleases?" 

"I pity the force that thinks they could prevent her from doing just that." 

They fall into a silence, watching as Fai shows Chii how to weave flowers into crowns. He only makes it through one and a half before she grows restless again, so she wears the pink peonies as they begin a game of chase.   

Some time later a shape appears over a mountain pass and Clow indicates this is her arrival. Kurogane can't imagine what sort of bird flies with such a strange, limping trajectory, until he realizes, "She's not a bird." 

"Indeed." 

"A butterfly?" 

"A swallowtail." 

Out in the field Fai has Chi in his arms again, pointing up to show her the new arrival. It almost seems like a trick of the eye as she approaches, and keeps approaching, and keeps approaching. By the time she is overhead, she dwarfs both Kurogane and Clow easily, her black and yellow wings eclipsing the sky. Then, all at once, she burns out from the center, falling into ash and nothingness.

No, not nothingness because there in the center of the clearing a woman stands, tall and regal, her long black hair trailing almost to her feet. The same wings, still giant, though now much _less_ giant, frame her torso to either side. 

"Clow." She greets with a smile, eyelashes half-lidded over completely dark eyes that catch the light with segmented iridescence. 

 

* * *

 

 

"Is this necessary?" 

The priests had been reasonable enough at first. They had welcomed Kurogane to the temple and explained his new role as what was essentially a god in the echelon of the Clow Country worship of dragons. Which... fair enough. What dragon wouldn't accept this as the natural order of things? 

There were a few artists at the edge of the room to take their sketches of him and but the strangeness had started when they were dismissed and the junior of the two priests, 'High priest Sumeragi' as he had been introduced, had pulled out a measuring spool. He moved around carefully taking dimensions while the other, High Priest Sakurazuka, held a hard bound book and marked down the numbers. 

"The architects need to know how big your shrine needs to be." Sumeragi says apologetically from where he's taking the width of his fore claw. "And the sculptors like to have a reference." 

"I'm getting a shrine?" 

"Every Dragon of Heaven has a shrine here in the city." 

"Yes," Sakurazuka smiles. "You can barely walk anywhere without tripping over one." 

He doesn't like talking to humans. Even when they're the sacrifices in his own lair. It's always a little awkward. Still, something is nagging at him. 

"Did Ashura get a shrine? Does it still stand?" 

The younger looks up at him with something like concern but the more senior just smiles slyly. 

"Of course." Sakurazuka answers. 

"And Yuui?"

The man tilts his head, nonplussed. "Why would Yue need a shrine?" 

Damn. He really needs to work on that. 

"But if you wanted to," Sakurazua continues. "You could probably call the entire university observatory Clow's little ode to the bird."

"Seishiro!" Sumeragi chides. "You can't speak of him like that!" 

Sakurazuka gives the younger a look. "My mistake. Yue Reed, Phoenix of Clow, Attendant of the Capital, Guardian of the Kingdom... Do you have an hour because I _do_ know the entire title. 

"At least call him 'Phoenix Yue'." He says, chin down, chastised. 

"Dragone of Heaven Kurogane didn't. Are you going to lecture him next?" 

Sumeragi glances up at him, visibly uncomfortable. "Dragon of Heaven Kurogane doesn't need to." 

Humans. They always did this. It was so much easier to deal with them one at a time when they weren't there to twist each other's words. 

Sumeragi moves on to another set of measurements, this time around his neck and skull. The priest asks nicely enough that it doesn't feel insulting to oblige him. As he counts and measures spines and the angles there between, it's starting to get to be too much. 

"Surely the sketches are enough." Kurogane rumbles, about two minutes from wandering away in boredom, bondage diplomacy be damned. 

"Accuracy is important. Many dragons that share a bloodline can look similar." 

"Must it be this exact?"

Sumeragi starts making apologetic noises but Sakurazuka cuts through, staring Kurogane straight in the eye as he does so. "These are less for the architect and more about if we ever need to identify your body." 

Kurogane's wings arch and he picks his head back up. Sumeragi hurries back before he is clipped by a spine.

"What?" the dragon growls. 

There is a quiet "Seishiro, please!" but it does nothing to stop him. 

"When a dragon of Heaven goes missing, it's imperative we find out what happened to them. Sometimes a charred skeleton is all we have left." 

"And that happens often?"

"There is something of a precedent." 

But that doesn't make sense. 

"Nothing can burn through dragon hide." 

"Well," Sakurazuka says knowingly. "There is _one_ thing." 

Yes. And Kurogane's been bedding him. 

"You think Fai would betray me?" 

"I highly doubt it. This is a mere formality. If he was going to turn on you, he would have done it already. I think he simply holds affection for you. I can't fathom any other reason he'd enter into a bond with you." 

"What other reason need there be?" 

The younger priest again tries to signal for restraint but the older ignores him. 

"Wealth, resource, truce, alliance. Unless there is something about your mountain you're not telling us, your bonding brings the kingdom none of these. In fact, all it does is hurt Fai and Clow's positions. Which... to a phoenix, they are one and the same thing."

"I am hurting Fai?" 

Seishiro just shrugs. 

"You," Kurogane turns to the younger where he is starting to panic. "Does your partner speak the truth?" 

He seems pained, entirely unhappy that things have come this far. "You're not hurting him. He obviously wishes to be given to you." Any yet there is something he isn't saying. 

"But?" Kurogane presses. 

"But it is most irregular. The bondings...  They almost always serve some larger purpose." 

There is nothing 'larger' about his seaside lair and the modest town that it overlooks.

Then a worse thought occurs to him. "Fai's bonding to Ashura: He did not go willingly?" 

Sakurazuka smiles calmly.  "A phoenix is always willing." 

It sounds like he's quoting something and Kurogane isn't sure if he wants to find out what. 

His gaze falls to the floor and his wings tuck in close. "And what purpose did it serve?" 

As Kurogane's tone starts to soften, Sumeragi calms the slightest bit. "Dragon of Heaven Ashura was a powerful ally. He won us a war." 

Sakurazua cuts in. "Before promptly starting a new one." 

The younger priest is visibly upset, caught between his optimism and the facts. "These are the events of long ago. I do not believe the situation now is quite is so dire." 

"Oh Subaru," The senior says with a sudden warmth. "You've always been such a man of faith." 

"And so must you be," He answers not entirely kindly. He turns, meeting his senior's gaze fiercely. "For you are always ready to test mine." Then he focuses resolutely on nothing. "Perhaps next time you could find someone else to go through the dimensions with you." 

"'Next time', he says to me." Seishiro chuckles to Kurogane and yet not. "Such a bright outlook. Wonders never cease." 


	12. On Wood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

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> I will never get over the RG Veda clothing.
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There are chimes for this sort of thing. Protocols. But what self respecting phoenix would turn down a chance to screech at their nestmate?

Fai's on his feet, wings flapping to keep his balance as he sprints barefoot to the chamber doors to greet his guest.

"Kujaku! And Kakei!?"

Then he's tackled in two sets of arms, the kind of hug that is entirely necessary when a dear one has been out of sight for far too many decades. Fai tries to pull away when he feels the pressure of propriety starting to crawl up the back of his neck, but they don't let him go and he's glad for it as he sighs and buries his face in their shoulders a little longer.

When he's ready- When their reunion is starting to feel real- Fai pulls away.

"My kin! It brings me joy to be with you! You're looking..." Fai's smile falters and squints at them. "You're not dressed just to come see me."

And indeed they're not. They each have tiny braids pinned back, hanging over loose, wavy and straight hair respectively. Their eyelids are darkened and their cheekbones dusted with something that keeps catching the light. Kujaku's magpie wings are tipped in a deep emerald color while Kakei's white look just generally disheveled. That particular type of disheveled it takes about an hour to manufacture.

"Of course not!” Kakei says. “The time has come for _being_ seen. You've an appearance to make, Sweetpea." He passes by Fai with no real invitation to do so.

Kujaku follows with a grin. "Tradition dictates, dear brother."

By the time Fai catches them up, Kuogane is already posturing his dominance to the intruders.

"Kurgy! I um... please meet my friends. This is Kujaku. And this is Kakei. They're uh..." And how to clarify? Because every phoenix is Fai's sibling in a sense, but these two... "We grew up together."

Kurogane stares down at them in slight bewilderment and they stare back, just as hard.

"So this is the mighty Kurogane." Kakei says, walking a small arc, appraising the dragon. "And what make you so special to have caught my little brother's fancy, hmmm?"

He doesn't know how to answer that, and it turns out he doesn't have to. "Kakei," Fai says warningly. "If you're here to test his merit, I'm afraid you're already too late. My bondage has already been promised. He has not been found wanting."

Kakei meets Fai's chiding with a smile, but makes no concession.

"Besides," Kujaku says, coming to Fai's aid, catching Kakei's hand and pulling him back towards an alcove that is more or less Fai's closet and personal lounge- his own little horde of cloth and clothing essentially. "Yue likes him. _Yue_. He must be perfect."

With that the guests retreat into the theoretically ordered piles that Fai has dumped his things into.

"Don't worry. From them, teasing is a sign of friendliness."

"Are they going to stay long?" Kurogane frowns.

"You know," Fai pats his nose. It's almost cute how he's acting so grumpy. "Any other dragon on this mountain, save for Clow, would probably kill their own spawn to have three phoenixes visit their private chambers. And I only discount Clow because he already has them."

Kurogane catches the meaning of course. The adoring flock of phoenixes not tied to their own dragons had been in attendance to all of Clow's diplomatic appearances throughout the day. (And with the gathering of dragons, there had been many.) The one Fai had just introduced as Kujaku had been one of those relegated to this group, keeping always to its fringes.

"Dragons don't care about their spawn."

"It's a figure of speech."

"Are they staying with us?"

Fai presses his brow to the dragon's cheekbone and is nuzzled in return. Here in their own chambers at least, they are allowed these little displays of affection.

"No, relax. They're just here to get me ready to go out."

"Out?"

"Into the city to celebrate with the humans. Did you want to come too?"

Kurogane spits a spark of annoyance. "That sounds revolting."

"Yes I thought you might say that." Fai grins, full of exasperated adoration. "You'll be alright on your own for the night, won't you?"

Kurogane catches the length of Fai's body against the palm of a fore-claw. He laughs as the dragon growls against his stomach. "I guard our jungle territory every day. I can defend one room."

"No one is expecting you to defend anything," Fai runs a hand along his snout. "But I appreciate the confidence."

"You will be safe?"

"With these two?" Fai glances back over a shoulder where his brothers have made themselves comfortable among his things. "They've turned back armies. I'm sure they can handle a night out with some fans."

Kurogane nods and retreats to his own area as Fai goes to his, pretending very hard that he isn't watching as Kujaku and Kakei converge on his soon-to-be bondmate.

"Well, he's broad. I'll give you that." Kakei says as Fai comes to settle in the cushions between them. It's high praise coming from Kakei. They share a type. "Now, what were you thinking of wearing?"

Kujaku has already taken the liberty of starting to shade Fai's eyes, so he's careful not to move too much as he speaks. "Oh, I don't know. What is the fashion?" When a silence answers, he pulls away, looking up confused. "What?"

"Can you believe this, Kujaku?"

"I cannot dear brother."

"You're teasing again!" Fai pouts. "Just tell me."

Kakei crosses his arms and he looks down at Fai like he is a child too young to pick up on the joke. "You ask me what the fashion is when you are about to arrive at your own bonding festival? Sweatpea, you will set it for the next ten years with whatever you choose to wear tonight."

Fai knows the humans of Clow love their phoenixes. The idea of them. The glamour. But even this?

"You think so?"

"I know so."

And... isn't that just a delight? The humans are so _fun_.

"In that case, I have an idea." He says, rising and starting to sort through the haul they'd carried from home.

Tomoyo is going to _love_ this.

 

* * *

 

 

There is something special about Clow's country.

It's what Fai is thinking as he slams back another flaming shot to the unanimous applause of the spirit house. He swallows but catches the flame before he breathes out, fire singeing over the tops of the patrons’ heads as he pretends to roar like the dragons to whom they are all so devoted. Then he throws the shot glass down at his feet where he's standing on the bar. It bounces harmlessly to the side. Diamond doesn't shatter and no one would dream of serving a phoenix with anything less.

Kujaku climbs back up to join him, laughing as he holds Fai steady with hands to his waist. All four of them (Yue had insisted on chaperoning, even after Kakei's protests that he was a responsible big brother) are wearing variations on the same theme. They're each a contrast of dark dragon leather (care of Kakei's extensive personal collection) and bright skeins of fabric from Tomoyo's favorite artists draped more or (in Fai's case) less into robes. And the humans have noticed. Of course they have. Anyone back in the Daidouji village at all involved in the textile industry is about to become unspeakably rich.

The waist corset is perhaps not the most comfortable thing Fai could have worn, but the laces up his back make him easy to catch each time he starts to sway. "Another!" Fai crows to the crowd who cheer him on. Kujaku intercepts the next shot that the barkeep is already handing up while Yue goes to have a word that the strongest thing Fai is going to have for the next hour is juniper sap.

"That's mine!" He pouts, appealing to his crowd for support.

Reinforcements come in the form of Kakei at Fai's back. "You're being very greedy, Sweetpea. Don't you know I'm thirsty too?"

"Yes, we need you to pour for us."

It works like a charm. Fai is fuzzy, but full of renewed purpose. He lives to serve his brethren after all. The counter is cleared of napkins and glasses so Kujaku can straddle the bar, legs trailing down either side and leaning back on his arms. Kakei, kneeling between them, pulls the collar of Kujaku's deep purple robes down and open, playing up every movement for their spectators and exposing his chest.

Fai kneels behind Kujaku, flaming drink at the ready, but Kakei stops him with a single finger. "You're forgetting the best part, dear one."  Then he signals to the barkeep. Only when Kujaku has the stem of two cherries held carefully between his teeth does Kakei let Fai start the countdown.

The entire bar counts with them. "Three! Two! One!"

On the signal, Fai pours the shot into the hollow of Kujaku's straining neck. But it's too much. Or maybe just enough really. The flames lick down along with the alcohol, spilling between two pectorals, across his sternum. Just before it threatens to singe the purple fabric, Kakei is there, tongue at the ready and tracing back up his chest, swallowing flame and alcohol alike. He takes a breath before leaning forward over Kujaku to suck what is left off of his neck. And of course he finishes by tonging a cherry before biting down on it firmly and tearing fruit away from stem with a sharp turn of the head. As he leans back and pushes the fruit all the way in with a delicate finger, the bar descends into scandalized chaos. Kujaku smiles over at him, the second cherry sitting bright and red against his lip and chin. They share a laugh and the satisfaction of a job well done.

But there were two cherries on that stem.

For the next shot, Kujaku turns, both legs now trailing behind the bar as he rolls his shoulders and spreads his wings wide to each side.

Humans loved a good wing shot.

"A volunteer!" Kujaku prompts, and Fai has the sudden responsibility of picking one from the crowd of hopeful hands that rise almost as one.

"Uh..." Fai falters, overwhelmed for a moment with the inescapable energy of it. "You?" He says a little uncertainly, picking the hand of a young woman who happens to be standing closest. Fai's ability to keep himself upright is a somewhat unsure thing, so Yue finds himself obliged to help her up, passing her off to Kujaku's steady grip as she seems somewhat dumbfounded for joy. With three pairs of hands helping guide her, she comes to stand between Kujaku's parted thighs, facing back towards the crowd. It puts his face in a somewhat impolite area, but he doesn't stare, for propriteties sake. Not that that stops the crowd from fantasizing about it for a moment. It certainly doesn't stop _her_.

"Have you ever met a phoenix before, Miss?" He grins, friendly and eager to put her at ease.

"Not like this." She manages, looking down at him as he holds her thighs steady.

"Well, I'm pleased to make your acquaintance. My name is Kujaku."

"I know!" She blurts. "I mean- It honors me, Phoenix Kujaku." Her face goes a deep red.

But he just smiles. "It's a party! You needn't be so formal if you don't wish it."

"And if I do?"

There is a hint of something in her eye and it makes Kujaku grin a little wider. Fai is too far gone to notice but Kakei chuckles at him. His hands shift firmer, a little more broad against her skin and she swallows visably.  

"Then if you'd be ever so kind," Kujaku raises an eyebrow to where the barkeep is holding up another flaming shot. "Would you aid this phoenix in the name of country and our Lord Clow?"

“I wish only to do my civic duty.” The way she says it has Kujaku not wondering ‘if’ but ‘when’, ‘where’ and possibly ‘with who watching’.

She takes the shot in hand and waits for Kakei to position himself to catch what will fall along Kujauku's spine, but there is first a small skirmish that must be settled.

"You're taking a break Fai. You can barely stand as it is."

"Just one more! It's _my_ festival."  

Kakei sucks his teeth as he runs a critical eye over Fai and his current condition.

"Fine. But then it's your last. And I'm helping you."

When the two are kneeled down and ready to catch the alcoholic flames off Kujaku's back, she turns to the crowd. "To Phoenix Fai on the eve of his bonding!" She nods her deference to him. Or tries to. The positioning makes it hard for her to express humbleness when he's the one on his hands and knees. But he smiles up at her. Good enough. "May Dragon Kurogane bring great fortune!"

Beneath her, Kujaku lowers his head a little in preparation and his wings seem to shiver, then they snap to fullness arching open around her.

She raises the diamond glass to the crowd. "To our Lord and Dragon Clow!"

The crowd roars as she tips her hand, the fire and liquor falling a great distance before splashing onto his shoulders, running down his spine.


	13. To the Wind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter comes with some AMAZING fanart by the every lovely Winblossomwin. For a beautiful illustration of what our trashy raptors look like, [CLICK HERE](http://silverservererror.tumblr.com/post/150012794257/winblossomwin-i-drew-how-these-clamp-characters).   
>   
> Credit for "Trashy Raptors" is Winblossomwin's as well. Because they are cool like that. 
> 
> (Trigger warning for drinking too much and getting sick)  
> .  
> .  
> .

Fai’s ribs shift under golden tanned skin as he pants once, twice-

 

Kujuaku watches as the muscles along his back seize up and his stomach heaves. He’s got one hand in the lacings of Fai’s corset, the other holding back blonde hair. 

 

“You’re ok. You’re-”

 

There is a wet sound and Kujaku moves his foot just in time. 

 

“There you go.” 

 

Fai falls limp in his grasp and he pulls the blonde back upright, leaning him against the wall of the back alley. There are people watching, because there are  _ always _ people watching, but at least here they have some space. 

 

“Better?”

 

Fai wipes at his mouth with the back of his hand. “Much.” 

 

“So water, I think. And something to eat.” 

 

Fai grimaces at him but weakly. “And a nap?” 

 

“Not yet,” Kujaku smiles a little sympathetically. “I have to give you my gift first.” 

 

They walk back to their table with Kujaku’s arm around Fai’s waist. The legends about tonight will decide it is because he has missed him, and that isn’t exactly wrong, but in truth it has much more to do with the unsteady way Fai is walking. When Yue sees them enter and Kujaku nod, he lets off a flare, a call for attention and silence. In the hush that follows, Kujaku gestures to the musicians in the corner and they look at each other a little uneasily before preparing to play again.

 

Fai glances up at him in confusion for a moment, but when Kujaku just smiles at him, he watches the musicians instead, waiting to see what will happen. 

 

It starts with chimes, then an energetic string, twisting around each other, tossing the melody back and forth in a playful chase that feels easy, but based on how quickly the musician's hands are moving, isn’t. Then the drums lead the rest of the group to join and the ensemble moves the music in a familiar progression. 

 

“Kujaku!” For a moment Fai can only stand there as the chords shift and the melodies weave together. “Our song?” 

 

Because it’s not just his own. It’s Yuui’s as well. He hasn’t heard it since-

 

Well…

 

He hasn’t heard it since. 

 

For a moment his eyes water, but now isn’t really the time. There is a friend by his side and happy faces all around.

 

“I thought you’d like to hear them together.” Kujaku says, pulling him into a side-armed hug. “And a little less solem.” 

 

“Thank you! It’s beautiful, I-” Fai hugs him back tightly, this time not just for balance. “But...” Fai speaks it behind a hand, slightly scandalized but mostly amused, “Is this not blaspheme?” He poses it as a question, but he already knows that it is. The musicians have changed two sacred hymns, one of which was supposed to be laid to rest with its namesake. 

 

Kujaku just shrugs. “You’ll find the humans will do almost anything when it’s one of us asking. But we can speak of this later. Would you like to listen?”

 

Fai surveys a crowd that in turn watches him nervously, but his smile and bright eyes put them back at ease.

 

“I want to dance!” 

 

* * *

 

Fai is on his second break at their table when Kakei finally approaches the pole. 

 

At least half of the establishments in the capital have installed them but only the biggest can afford making them of actual steel. Most would never see use by a phoenix, but they kept them installed, just on the off chance. 

 

One night like this could make a tavern’s reputation for a generation. 

 

The crowd falls to a hush as Kakei approaches, climbing the stairs to the stage that is almost instantly left bare as the humans scatter. A pin drop could be heard as he rolls his shoulders and squares up to the metal. The movement shifts the material of his rich green robe and the fabric slips a little, leaving one of his shoulders bare, but for the black dragon scale leather that fits him perfectly from the collar that circles his throat to the seam just before his deltoid. Below that are thin straps that weave down his chest, held together by rivets and supporting a wide belt that hugs the bottom of his rib cage. 

 

The robe pools in the crook of his elbow, revealing just the smallest sliver of skin below the belt before a second matching one cinches around the fabric at his waist, holding it in place. 

 

There are flints woven into his leathers, evenly spaced stones all along the seams. But it’s with the inside of his middle finger that he drags a flint ring down the pole a few inches. The sparks fall heavy and healthy at his feet before burning out.

 

He smiles softly. 

 

With a nod of approval for the equipment, he closes his hand around the pole again. Only then does he look out at the sea of eyes, as if he’s only just noticed them. He finds the principal of the musicians. 

 

“Why have you stopped playing?” 

 

After a scramble the beat begins again. 

 

Back at Fai’s table the conversation falls to a lul. Kakei is always beautiful to watch, and even more entertaining is the breathless way the humans anticipate. If Fai was feeling fatigue before, the energy and tension in the room is more than enough to revive him. Even having seen it so many times before, even as his vision swims a little, there are butterflies in his stomach but not from nausea. 

 

Up on stage, Kakei circles the pole once, his hand trailing, watching the sparks fall along the metal. Watching the crowd watch him. 

 

Then, with a powerful jump and the beat of his wings, he springs straight to the top, perching with the pole caught between his knees. A single small feather falls and there is a brief rush to be the hand that catches it, but the commotion passes as soon as the lucky patron tucks it out of sight. Pretending he hasn’t noticed, Kakei slowly eases off the pressure between his legs and the underside of his heels scrape along the pole as he begins to slide, bright orange sparks falling beneath his feet as he watches serenely from above. 

 

Back at the table Fai has given up sitting in his booth normally and rests on his knees, half sprawled onto the table. 

 

“This reminds me!” He breaks the silence of the group, inebriation forestalling him from realizing the awkwardness of it. “Where  _ is _ Karen?” 

 

Yue hands him another glass of water and Fai blinks like he doesn't quite know what to do with it. On his other side Kujaku pulls the seam of Fai’s robes a little lower where they ride up the back of his thighs. Keeping him clothed is a bit of a losing battle at the best of times, but he’s got to at least make a token effort. The way Fai is holding his wings low and lazy is not exactly helping. 

 

Yue knows Karen’s location of course. There is very little Yue  _ doesn’t _ know about Clow’s empire and its legendary flock. “The drought in her land continues. With the Summer thunder she couldn’t afford to leave.” 

 

“She’s putting out the wildfires?” 

 

“Precisely.” 

 

Fai looks hard at his drink until the noise from the crowd has him looking up at Kakei leaning back against the pole. His hips roll as his rich green robe falls teasingly open, revealing a hint of the stark black garters high on his thighs. 

 

There is something about that. Some notion that caresses Fai’s mind, but his thoughts are muddled and it’s gone before he can quite bring it to clarity. 

 

What were they-? 

 

Oh right, Karen. 

 

“Then why aren’t we there?” Fai asks, suddenly feeling industrious. “We should go help her!” 

 

Yue just looks at him strangely. “She’s more than capable.” 

 

“Well… well what about Geigi?” 

 

“Death in her royal family. She has to be there for the sudden coronation. Couldn’t be helped.” 

 

Fai pouts at his glass. Yue leans forward, more confusion than concern. 

 

“This upsets you?” 

 

But no, not  _ upsets _ . He just misses them, but it’s not something he’s going to bring up. Especially not now. 

 

“I just didn’t imagine my bonding eve to be such a sausage fest.” 

 

Yue just looks confused, but Kujaku barks a laugh. 

 

“Yes,” Kujaku grins, full of amused sarcasm, “because the four of us just  _ scream _ testosterone.” 

 

Fai scowls, but he’s saved from a weak comeback by a perfectly synchronized gasp from the humans. Up towards the top of the pole, Kakei’s torso falls back, arms spread and wings angled down and displayed so prettily. He doesn’t quite smile and his green eyes are so serene, but Fai and the rest of the phoenixes know it to be a look of deep satisfaction. He always enjoyed the focus and the discipline. Then, taking his weight into the crook of one knee, he extends the other long leg straight up. There is a small smattering of applause from the humans but most are watching in silent, rapt attention. 

 

With the slightest angling of his foot, toes outward and ankle in, he brings the flint from the arch of his boot against the steel. Slow but steady, he drags it downward, letting a shower of brilliant yellow sparks fall down the pole, down his leg, across his entire body. He closes his eyes and arches, sparks flowing down his chest, along the lines of his neck. They trickle down his arms and with a smile he catches a few between his fingers. He spreads his hands, and the flames weave in and out of his fingers before settling in his palms. 

 

The leg that was above swings back and he catches it in both hands, transferring the flame to his bare toes where they peek out of his shoe. In a flash of controlled falling and fluid twists around the pole, he traces a swirling afterimage into the retinas of those in attendance. Then Kakei catches himself and he is right side up again, pole between his bent knees. 

 

This time everyone applauds, and Kakei takes a moment to smile, cheek pressed against the steel as he holds the pole close. 

 

He takes a hand away to retrieve the flame from his toes, dragging it up a bare leg, up his thigh, until it licks at the bottom hem of his robes. The fine material Tomoyo had given Fai for the occasion is already full of tiny holes from the sparks, but now it burns and spreads; The consuming yellow flame, and the red ember that chases it for only a moment before the fibers fall away as ash. The destruction creeps higher and higher up Kakei’s body as the fabric burns away but beneath it the full set of dragon leathers is revealed; tough, resistant to flame, made for a phoenix to wear. The straps of it are stark and black against his skin. 

 

Kakei shifts positions and slides smoothly down the pole, toes touching the floor lightly as the last of the robe burns away. As he steps away, weight coming to rest fully in his feet, he takes a hand away to run it through his hair, then down his neck and shoulder, fingertips catching on the harness that encases his chest.

 

“Is that supposed to pass as armor?” Yue frowns up at the display. “I mean, is that really necessary?” 

 

Because it is too little to protect him. And far too gratuitous for the set of combat flints this is pretending to be.. 

 

How can there be so many straps and yet nothing to hold up? 

 

Across the table, Kujaku drags Fai back by the corset lacings again and he’s just happy enough and inebriated enough to go with it when he settles back in his chair but nestled into Kujaku’s side. A black wing wraps around his shoulders and Fai sighs, feeling warm and safe.

 

And snickering. 

 

“What?” Yue drags his eyes away from the way Kakei’s legs are moving to glare demandingly at Fai instead. 

 

Who smiles drunkenly into Kujaku’s shoulder. “Says the guy wearing enough chain tonight to make it into mail.” 

 

Fai doesn’t turn to watch it, but Yue’s cheeks flush crimson while his expression twists embarrassed and hurt for just a moment before shifting into anger. Kujaku’s wing shifts a little protectively. He doesn’t mean to but it’s reflex.

 

Yue catches himself quickly enough and Kujaku relaxes again. The moment passes leaving Fai with a cheek on Kujaku’s shoulder while he traces the decorative double chains that fall from his neck to bicep with an unsteady fingertip. 

 

Where Yue’s are strong and heavy, covering his neck and chest before disappearing beneath fabric, Kujaku’s are thin and golden, small ornamental leaves worked into the design at even intervals. 

 

Across the table, Yue reaches for the drink Kakei had left behind and drains half of it at once before setting it down a little too forcefully. 

 

“He’s drunk,” Kujaku says over Fai’s head, who is apparently busy enough with the chain to be content being ignored. “He doesn’t know what he’s saying.” 

 

But Yue just grimaces, looking at Fai a little wistfully before rubbing his hands over his face. “He doesn’t know at all.” 

 

Kujaku’s brows shoot up in surprise. “You never told him?” 

 

Yue doesn’t dignify that with a response, but holds his gaze as he takes another drink. 

 

Fai finally sits up, pushing away from Kujaku’s side and apparently oblivious to the tense shift in mood. “I want one,” Fai says, starting to lean the other way. His eyes catch on the diamond hanging at Yue’s sternum and for a moment it looks like Fai might crawl closer. But Yue frowns and Kujaku grabs Fai to drag him back again, pulling him into a tight hug that has Fai struggling and laughing. 

 

Even on a night like tonight, Yue can’t help but smile as he watches. 

 

“Of course you do,” Yue sighs, half deadpan, half exasperated. 

 

“I want a big one.” 

 

A familiar voice joins them asking, “A big what?” 

 

They turn to see Kakei standing at the side of the table, a hand running through slightly damp hair, but an exhilarated grin on his face. He searches for his drink and pouts a little when he finds it in Yue’s hands. 

 

“A chain.” Fai says, and Kakei’s smile is back full force as he trades glances with the others at the table. 

 

But then Fai points at one of the black leather garters sitting high on Kakei’s thigh. All three of them look, a little confused, but for Fai it’s an idea that finally comes into clear focus. 

  
“And a tattoo!” 


	14. And Needles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has been sitting as a draft on my computer for so long. The more I mess with it, the weirder it gets? ^^' So I'm posting it and moving on to the next. I hope to see you soon with the next part!
> 
> CW: Needles and a brief mention of blood

The stone walls stand grey and rough as Kurogane watches the flame lick up the sides of the chamber. 

 

Clow’s fire. 

 

Undying.

 

Full of magic.

 

It feels unnatural. Piercing somehow. And it grates at his mind like an ache in the temple. 

 

He shifts again, legs held in tight and tail coming to curl around his body, the tip just crossing to his cheek where it rests on the floor. 

 

There is some familiarity to it. Some resonance that reminds him of Fai, as much as he doesn’t wish to admit it. But it’s too intense like this. Far too intense. 

 

He closes his eyes against the flames, trying to ignore them. Ignoring the dead chill of the floor. Ignoring the quiet absence of his otherwise constant mate and companion. And still sleep does not come. 

 

The roar of frustration hits the stone of the chambers suddenly and scatters into chaotic echos as Kurogane tears out of his repose, growling deeply as he lands in the fire, smothering the flame underfoot. It takes a frenzy of movement but within seconds the chamber falls dark. 

 

And Kurogane sighs, the hot breeze of it spreading over the floor and mingling with his feet. 

 

With Clow’s fire, the magic is gone, and he feels relief. 

 

And then stagnation. 

 

And the cold, dead stones, so different from the young obsidian and magma that flows in his home. 

 

It is so, so dark. 

 

Burning heat swirls in his stomach until his body contracts around it, pushing the flames out in a powerful stream. For a brief moment the room illuminates with golden light, the angle of it throwing strange shadows that streak across the walls. But then it hits the arches of the ceiling and dies away. 

 

He roars another. 

 

And another. 

 

And each time the darkness returns. 

As his eyes close, he fights the instinct to escape. To claw his way out of these walls. He could manage it. Maybe. He waits for his blood to stop pounding through his body. When he opens his eyes again, his jaw falls slightly ajar, and a soft, orange light emits, radiating from the furnace of his stomach.  It catches the heaving of his chest. 

 

Out of the corner of his eye, he spots a fluttering light, and without thinking, swats it into embers. 

 

Only after it burns out does he feel true alarm. As his eyes dart around the chamber, he finds two more. Red burning butterflies that die away into nothingness as he strikes them. 

 

He’d seen Fai twist fire in such beautiful ways, but never was it anything like  _ this _ . They seem almost solid. Entirely stable. And yet it doesn’t feel like magic. 

 

He roars, body poised to attack, claws tearing and jaws biting more of the delicate insects out of the air and into ash. But they just keep coming. More and more, until a whole swarm surrounds him, disorienting and chaotic. 

 

“Show yourself!” 

 

All at once they burn out, leaving a single light in the room. One last butterfly glows with a soft warm hue, hovering over an upturned human palm, wings beating freely and yet going nowhere. As Kurogane watches, the hand moves, taking the butterfly light with it, revealing the face of Clow’s first creation in illumination that washes over her skin and reflects strangely off her dark, segmented and iridescent eyes. 

 

“Phoenix Yuuko.” 

 

She smiles. “Please, Kurogane. Just ‘Yuuko’ will do. We’re family now after all.”

 

None of which sets him at ease. “What are you doing here?” 

 

“I’m a phoenix. You’re a dragon throwing a tantrum. Do I really need to draw you a picture?”  

 

“I’m fine!”

 

Yuuko just ignores his upset. Nothing shakes her serene detachment. “I’m sure you are.” 

 

She lifts her hand and the butterfly she is holding takes off, fluttering and growing, finding a perch in a trellis close to the ceiling, casting gentle light through the whole room. Its intricately patterned wings beat slowly, like some sort of living chandelier. The glow of it bathes the whole room in soft reds, and it almost reminds him of home.

 

He sits back, reluctantly calmer now. He folds his wings in close. 

 

“Shouldn’t you be with Clow right now?” 

 

Kurogane had been half listening as Fai and his friends had been decorating each other earlier. Most of the gossip and rumors slid mercifully in one ear and out the other. Stories and scandals about names he didn’t recognize and didn’t care to know. But when Yue and Yuuko had been mentioned, that was unfortunately not the case. 

 

“Do we have to?” Kujaku had whined when Fai had insisted they invite Yue along. “He’s going to be all uptight. He always is.” 

 

“If we don’t, he’s just going to get all Butterfly Effect later.” 

 

“So? Let him pout. It’s not our problem.” 

 

The conflict had been obvious on Fai’s face. 

 

That’s when Kakei had draped himself against Kujaku’s side. “So cruel, dear brother. Don’t you have a heart? Don’t you feel for poor Yue?” 

 

Kujaku had laughed. “You’d be far less sympathetic if you had to live with him.” 

 

Fai chided from across the small alcove where he was sorting through silks. “Oh Kakei, how can you expect Kujaku to understand? He’s never been bonded the way we have.” 

 

Kujaku smiled as he looked down at Kakei, a hand coming to settle around his waist. “And may that day never come. I swear it drives you all half mad with jealousy.” 

 

The conversation had wandered after that, but the implications had been clear enough.   
  
Kurogane’s eyes trace along the floor, find her feet and then her face again. But she isn’t looking at him. She’s assessing the scorch marks he’s left on the wall. “I was with Clow. Now I’m not. I may wander as I wish.” 

 

“You are allowed to do this?”

 

“Who is going to stop me?” 

 

She strolls out of his sight and Kurogane has to turn to keep observing her. “You are bonded to Clow, are you not?”

 

She glances back then, finally considering him. “It’s different than with the birds. That word feels so small considering all we’ve shared.” 

 

“But you belong to him?”

 

She smiles, and it’s strange and satisfied. Her eyes feel so alien. “We belong to each other. We  _ all _ do. No one escapes that.” She turns away from him again, her back vulnerable. Her wings almost shadows in the low light. “Not even you, Kurogane.” 

 

* * *

  
  
  


Fai tries to hold it back, but another sob bubbles out of his throat as he clutches the hand in his own even tighter. 

 

“Fai…” Kakei wipes a tear away softly with the back of a knuckle. Then he moves to trace fingertips along his temple. “Are you ok?” 

 

“It hurts,” he says tightly.

 

And Kakei frowns.

 

Not ‘Stop’.    
  
Not ‘I can’t’.   
  
Just ‘It hurts’.    
  
“I know.” Kakei’s voice drops to a comforting coo as he leans in to give a kiss to his cheek. To run a hand across the skin under his wing.    
  
From the far wall, Yue catches Kakei’s eye. His cool expression doesn’t change as he turns back to the window, watching the skies and the lights of the streets beneath.

 

Down at Fai’s thigh, the terrified tattoo artist pulls her needles away and averts her gaze. “A Pause!” She says a little desperately, wiping away dripping ink and the smallest amount of blood. “Let’s take a short rest.” 

 

“But-” Fai starts to protest. 

 

“My arms. I’m sorry my Phoenixes, but I must take a moment to recover.” 

 

It’s not true. The sheer size of the piece that winds around Fai’s thigh is daunting enough, but she is skilled at her craft and though she feels the strain in her arms and right wrist, she is nowhere near exhausted by the work it has taken to wind a silhouette of Dragon of Earth Kurogane around his leg. 

 

No, this break is happening because something has gone very wrong. She gathers her tools, and takes them back to the counter to inspect their spiked tips that push the ink into skin. As she nears, Kujaku, who until this moment was much more interested in all her colorful dyes, suddenly looks down at her with reserved amusement. 

 

“You look scared half to death,” He says.     
  
She runs a fingertip along the needles that sit in tight geometric rows. They are as sharp as they should be. She can’t figure out what the problem is.

 

“He shouldn’t be in this much pain,” She whispers, keeping her voice low enough to speak privately, even as she looks over a shoulder to see Kakei comforting Fai. “Maybe ones such as your honorable selves experience sensation differently, but i’ve never seen anything like this.” She hesitates, but what could the admission hurt? “I don’t know what to do!” 

 

In her hands, black ink is soaked into every crevice surrounding the sharp tips. She could start fresh with another new tool, but this one is hardly worn dull. It wouldn’t make any difference. 

 

Kujaku’s hand falls on her wrist. When she looks up, he has slid much closer on the counter, but his face is calm and reassuring. “All you need to do is finish the picture. You’re doing great.” 

 

“But he…” She trails off. 

 

Kujaku pulls his hand away and she stares at the place where she still feels the warmth on her skin. No one will ever believe this has happened. That four phoenixes had wandered into her small parlor well after midnight. That she had not only touched Phoenix Fai, but marked him as well.  How could they? 

 

Kujaku glances back at Fai, smiling a little sadly. “He’ll be fine. Surely you must know the stories?” 

 

“About…?” She can’t quite tell what he means. Her eyes go a little wide as she works up the courage to speak Yuui’s name, but Kujaku has already continued.

 

“This can’t be anything compared to battle.” 

 

‘Battle’ isn’t really something those in the capital hear of often. Well, yes, at the shrines and in the parables of worship, but that is all ancient history. She’s seen statues of Fai adorned in armor, but it’s hard to imagine him attacking anything. And impossible to think of him taking a blow.

 

“I don’t want him crying. I don’t want to hurt him.” 

 

“Yours isn’t the pain he’s crying for,” Kujaku doesn't react much as she silently questions. “If this is how and where he wants to grieve something, shouldn’t we let it happen?” 

 

And she’s caught. 

 

Between the imploring look on Kujaku’s face and the utter wrongness of harming a phoenix. 

 

Behind her, a series of quick noises steals her attention. 

 

A distant rushing of air. A snap of Yue’s fingers followed by a breathless silence and then the crack of a small explosion in the sky just above the shop. As she turns and approaches, once more carrying her tools and some fresh ink, she can’t resist looking over Yue’s shoulder out the wide third floor window. 

 

And stops dead as she realizes the crowd she’s been hearing outside isn’t more standard Bonding Eve revelry. They have clearly noticed the winged silhouette of Yue, and stand watching. Watching  _ her _ tattoo parlor. 

 

Hundred of faces looking up and witnessing. 

 

So much for no one ever believing her.    
  
As Yue’s flare dies out in bursts of lavender flame, the crowd cheers once more, but there is a commotion towards the back. To a human, any flame might look the same, but every phoenix knows in their soul the quality of a flame of Clow, Yue spots it immediately.    
  
“They’re here.” 

 

Below the crowd begins to part, then silence as the realization grows. 

 

It’s somewhat slow going, but Doumeki bares the torch high as he makes his way through the crowd, and Watanuki follows, face a mask of sombre dignity as he follows a few steps behind. Even in the low light, the gold hangs from his hands like it is molten and alive with the movements of his steps. 

 

The whispers flow through the crowd again like a soft cacophony as they see it. 

  
As they witness the chains. 


	15. Sleeping Dogs Lie

The tension and power in Kurogane’s rear flank is plain to see, muscle shifting under scaled onyx skin. He launches from the stone floor, front claws extended as he bounds forward, body and movement entirely focused. One flap of wings gives him a final boost of speed, stirring Yuuko’s hair and sending a fine cloud of dust up in his wake. Then all the motion, all the inertia and intent, comes crashing back to the floor. Kurogane pounces, bright, butterfly flame disappearing under his front claws, sending Clow’s high court room once more into cool moonlight, warmed only where it filters weakly through the stained glass of the birds and dragons depicted in the windows. 

 

Kurogane lifts a claw. Just like the last few times, there is nothing there. Instinct is coursing a little too strongly for him to stop and think about what might have happened to it, so instead his head whips around the cavernous room, searching where it might have escaped to. 

 

A movement catches his eye, up by one of the side windows, and before anything else can register, predatorial instinct has him shooting a fireball in that direction. 

 

Then a few things happen in a very short span of time. 

 

First, Kurogane realizes he is not looking at a butterfly reflecting off the glass depiction of a phoenix, but in fact, looking as his own phoenix, made of flesh and blood, climbing through an opened window, some torch fire over his shoulder. Fai looks at him in shock and horror, knowing there is no time to defend himself. Kurogane’s expression is much the same. 

 

The second thing that happens, just in time, is Kurogane’s flame completely and inexplicably, retracts. Pulling tight and hot, gagging him as it slams back into his stomach, fire fluttering unnaturally against his insides. The room once again fades into dim moonlight. 

 

Third, almost as if in slow motion, Fai overcorrects. Kurogane can see the exact moment Fai’s weight shifts too far, and he slips off his already precarious perch of the window sill. Kurogane reaches out a claw to catch him, already knowing he is too far away, when Fai’s fall stops with an abrupt jerk and a pained groan. As Fai’s wings shift uselessly forward, Kurogane can see a hand reaches out and has him caught by the lacings of the corset around his waist. 

 

Then the room is absolutely still. Fai stares at Kurogane. Kurogane stares at Fai. 

 

“Kurgs!” Shock. Suprise. Relief. Then his face twists and, “I think I’m gonna be sick.” 

 

Kurogane comes forward and takes Fai’s weight easily into his claws. Kujaku lets his grip go so Kurogane can help him safely to the ground. 

 

It doesn’t take Fai long to recover and as soon as he does-

 

“What are you-?”

 

“My flame!” Kurogane speaks over him, too desperate for an answer to wait for frivolous questions. 

 

After a moment of confusion, Fai understands the implied question, and his searching eyes locking on Yuuko is more than enough to have Kurogane following suit. As his gaze shifts back to her, he sees her hand raised, fingers tense in a not-quite fist. Then she breathes, releasing the tension in her fingers and at the same time, the fluttering in Kurogane’s stomach abades. 

 

“What did you-!?”

 

Then a new voice speaks from the direction Fai was just standing, making Kurogane’s attention whip around once more. “Relax,” Kakei says, now standing at Fai’s side, steadying him with a supportive hand and checking him over for any actual damage with the other. “It’s just a few butterflies in the stomach.” 

 

Fai grows more and more restless with Kakei’s fussing, but he holds him there until he is satisfied Fai is unhurt, before finally letting him go. 

 

Immediately Fai goes to Kurogane’s front claws, unsteady and slightly limping before laying down across the back of his front foot, arms wide in an almost-hug and face pressing against smooth, warm scales. “Kurgy, I’m so tired.” 

 

It’s at this point that things have calmed down enough- And really, with the way they fall against Fai’s back and disappear beneath his robe- 

 

It’s at this point that Kurogane notices the chains, delicate and intricate, weaving metal and precious stones together in a web of gold and deep crimson that looks almost black in the low light. It falls across smooth skin, almost glowing in the moonlight, shifting as Fai relaxes against him. 

 

But Kurogane can’t really appreciate that quite yet. 

 

He still breathes through the shock of the flames in his belly. Of someone else controlling his fire. It hadn’t hurt, but it didn’t feel good either. On the other hand, Yuuko had kept him from burning Fai on accident. Maybe in a day or two, he’d feel ready to thank her. But for now he raises his other forefoot and strokes Fai’s side gently with the back of his knuckles, at least until a touch on his hip has Fai wincing. 

 

“Fai? You’re hurt.” 

 

“No,” He whines, ineffectually pushing him away. “I’m just drunk.” 

 

And it is true. Kurogane can tell he is  _ very _ drunk. But also, “You were limping.”  

 

“Kuro,” Fai says as sternly as he can manage without moving. “I am  _ tired _ . Take me to bed.”

 

But he's seen Fai drunk before. He's never seen him hurt. 

 

Kurogane tries again, worry making his tone impatient. “Just let me see,” he insists, carefully trying to push the deep blue silks out of the way with the back of a toe. He's been yelled at for ripping Fai’s clothes too many times to even think of attempting it with a claw. 

 

But Fai squirms away from his touch, at least until Kurogane catches him around the ankle with a pinky, another testament to how inebriated Fai is. Kurogane can usually  _ never _ pin him down unless he wants it. 

 

“Kuro!” Fai says again, this time filled with a sharpness Kurogane doesn't understand. “Don’t!” 

 

“But you’re hurt!”

 

It is at this point that Kurogane becomes aware of the other phoenixes closing ranks around him, their expressions a mix of concern and what Kurogane has come to recognize as protectiveness. 

 

“Leave it.”

 

“He really is fine.”

 

“He said to stop.” 

 

“Careful, Kurogane.” 

 

And that more than anything enrages him. 

 

What right do these birds have to treat him as a threat when they were the ones to bring home his precious companion limping? 

 

He's about to say as much, posture raised and eyes fierce, when Fai screeches, loud, piercing and shrill. 

 

Everyone quickly silences, tension not entirely gone, but now focused on Fai.

 

He huffs, clearly reigning in his own frustrations. 

 

“Kuropu,” and wow, he  _ must _ be drunk to think that nickname is at all placating. Especially in this company. But he does look up at Kurogane, expression doing a much better job of calming him. “I'm fine. Yes, something happened. No, I don't want you to see. Can we please go to bed?” 

 

“But-”

 

“ _ Please _ ?”

 

Kurogane can feel his resolve slipping.

 

He looks up at the other phoenixes, searching for any sort of answers.

 

“What happened?”

 

Yue stares him down, still some challenge in his shoulders and wings. “It's a secret.” 

 

Before that raises too many alarm bells in Kurogane’s mind, Kakei cuts in with “It's a  _ surprise _ .” Kakei looks over at Yue and there is a brief and silent exchange that ends with Yue narrowing his eyes and Kakei rolling his and backing off. 

 

“Kuro…” Fai whines, drawing his attention once more to the phoenix. Kurogane softens as he pulls him closer to his chest, shifting his weight to stand on three legs. “Can we sleep? Please?” 

 

Kurogane relents. “If you insist.”

 

There are many things that Fai does that confound him. The ever growing collection of finery that the phoenix has been collecting back home, almost none of it ever worn. The rhythm by which Fai disdains and loves the humans, both here and home, depending on his mood. His inexplicable trust and affection for these creatures he calls family. 

 

But they’re worth it.    
  
They have always been worth it.    
  
So if Fai wants to hide whatever has hurt him, and if these ‘brothers’ wish to hold their silence, Kurogane will let it be.    
  
“Have you eaten?” 

 

“Uhg!” Fai makes a face and curls onto his side, cheek soothed by warm, smooth keratin. “I couldn’t if I wanted to, and I  _ do not _ want to.” 

 

With one last careful look between the other phoenixes, Kurogane starts to back away, carrying Fai in his careful, close embrace. 

 

“You think they’ll be ok?” Kujaku asks once they are both gone. Yuuko and Yue watch the empty entry arch with almost the same look of contemplation.

 

Kakei simply smiles, coming to him and resting his head on Kujaku’s shoulder. “Oh, surely. A dragon that in love? Of course he’ll be gentle.” 

 

There's a derisive huff and they both look to Yue. 

 

Kakei lets a hand brace against Kujaku’s stomach as he leans around to consider him.    
  
“Have I gotten too sentimental for your sensibilities again?” 

 

The remark has Yue frowning and leaving by a modest door hidden in the architecture behind the dais. 

 

“You see?” Kakei asks the room at large, “Not even a ‘thank you’ for the night out. Such a mystery, that bird.”  

 

Yuuko finally shifts her gaze away from the entryway, sliding instead to the two phoenixes standing arm in arm. She smiles. “You all are.” Then she too slips into the darkness of a side hall. 

 

It leaves the two of them, and Kujaku lets his hand settle on the low seam of leather where it sits on Kakei’s hip. “Good catch,” Kakei eventually says.

 

“Thank you.” Kujaku answers, pulling lightly at the leather like the harness it is. “Looks like it’s just the two of us again.” Kakei smiles softly into his shoulder but says nothing. “Are you going to join me?” 

 

Kakei melts against his side, reaching up to breathe in at his neck. “You invited that human, didn’t you?” 

 

“I did.” 

 

Kujaku’s hands trace his seams, and he lets himself enjoy it a moment longer, before taking his weight back into his own feet. “No,” he turns down gently. He moves to face Kujaku chest to chest, and kisses him just under the ear. “You should give her your full attention.” 

 

Kujaku pulls their hips together and sighs at the gentle pressure.    
  
“Sure I can’t change your mind?” 

 

Kakei catches his chin and kisses him deeply, slow and quiet in the vastness of the room. 

 

He pulls out of the kiss with a lazy grin. “Positive.” 

 

Kujaku breathes, a soft smile on his face as he lets him slip away. 

 

* * *

 

Even with a careful touch, the heavy wood and iron door thuds as it closes, echoing through the catacombs of the high temple. Seishiro thinks it has gone unnoticed until he turns and just as he passes the first supporting strut- 

 

“Who was that?” 

 

Seishrio smiles. Subaru is always at his most beautiful when he’s full of righteous fury.  This is only suspicion so far, but one so often follows the other. 

 

“It was no one.” 

 

But Subaru moves into his path blocking the way. 

 

Seishiro pulls up short. “Subaru,” And that's how it is between them when no one is listening. “I am every bit high priest you are. Your partner, not your servant. I owe you no explanation.”  

 

“You do when you entertain cultists.” 

 

“I merely listen to my flock.” 

 

“Yes,” Subaru says with building anger, “the parts of it trying to bring back ritual sacrifice.” 

 

“If that is how their faith leads them-”   
  
“ _ Clow _ leads them, Seishiro.” 

 

And really that should end the argument, but Seishiro is still smiling. 

 

“Who was it?” Subaru demands a second time. 

 

“My bookie.” 

 

The shocked question is immediate. “Fai got chained!?” 

 

And Seishrio delights as Subaru trips over himself, trying to decide which part of that he needs to address first, but it’s too late. Seishiro has seen that spark of interest.   
  
“You can’t- First of all, this is blasphemy. I don’t need to tell you that. Or what it would mean if anyone ever found out. Second, You know far too much about both of them for it to even be fair for you to play. Third, what did you even bet with?” As head priests of the faith, neither of them are allowed material possessions. 

 

“Just some old relic.” 

 

Subaru’s tone allows no room for evasion. “What relic, Seishiro?” 

 

“The Sealing Staff. It doesn’t even work anymore.” 

 

Subaru’s posture finally relents, more exasperated than anything else. At least it wasn’t anything useful. Clow hadn’t used that one in a thousand years. Still, they couldn’t have it lost and floating around the humans. 

 

“You better hope Dragon of Earth Kurogane is good.” 

 

“Kurogane? I was betting on Fai.”    
  
“Fai!?” 

 

And that look of panic on Priest Sumeragi’s face... So delightful.    
  
“Why not? His dragon is inexperienced. And Fai is old.” 

 

“Not that old! Not old for a phoenix.”    
  
“Ah, perhaps, but he’s also stubborn, is he not?” 

 

“And Kurogane isn’t? You have to change your bet. Fetch him back.” 

 

“Oh?” Seishiro takes a step forward, towering over Subaru with a hungry cheer. “Did you want to play too, Subaru?” 

  
And Subaru steps away abruptly, suddenly aware he’s crossed a line, but not sure when it happened. “Of course not!” He tries for indignation, but feels wrong-footed somehow, but the next statement has him back on solid ground. “You can't pay with the staff.”    
  
“I suppose you’re right.”    
  
“I’m serious, Seishiro!”    
  
“As am I,” He smiles, looking nothing of the sort. “I’m sure I’ll find something else.” 


End file.
